Finance

In a new agreement with federal, state and independent regulators, Morgan Keegan & Co. will fork over about $200 million as part of its settlement of prior fraud charges related to its subprime MBS vehicles.

Large institutions are starting to reconsider their obligation to make servicing advances to MBS investors as it takes longer and longer to foreclose and liquidate residential properties.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Mary L. Schapiro spoke today at the American Securitization Forum’s annual meeting in Washington D.C. to discuss the current state and future of the RMBS market.

No one could have predicted the speed of recovery in the commercial real estate space, said panelists speaking today at the American Securitization Forum’s 2011 annual meeting.

Pine River Capital Management launched a new REIT Index. According to a press release from the firm, the Pine River REIT Index will provide a means to monitor sector performance in REITs.

Moody’s Investor Service announced on Monday that it intends to review 34 classes of Capital One Bank credit card ABS for potential downgrade. The securities were issued out of the Capital One Multi-Asset Execution Trust (COMET).

Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University economist and the namesake of the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indexes, has been called overly pessimistic for predicting home prices could fall another 25%.

Bank policyholders suing the New York Insurance Department (NYID) and MBIA Inc. say new documents made available to the public show MBIA senior executives concealed critical information from the NYID about the size of future losses at MBIA Insurance Corp.

If Congress does not act in time to increase the federal debt ceiling, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will likely shut down — cutting off a key source of mortgage credit for homebuyers.

The risk retention proposal drafted by federal regulators is likely to hinder the development of a private securitization market and make it harder to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a new paper by Moody's Analytics.

Mortgage application activity declined in the week ending June 17 with both refinancing and purchase activity lower as mortgage rates crept higher.

The keynote speakers at this week’s American Securitization Forum 2011 annual meeting in Washington D.C. gave a bipartisan call from U.S. representatives to save the 30-year mortgage, saying that without this product a significant portion of homebuyers will not be served.

JPMorgan Securities has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning its 2007 sale of CDOs called Squared CDO 2007-1, according to a press release from the firm.

Single-family existing home sales fell 3.2% in May as April sales were revised downward and severe weather hampered homebuying in the Midwest.

Enterprise Fleet Management (EFM) is currently in the market with Enterprise Fleet Financing, LLC Series 2011-2. JPMorgan Securities and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are the joint bookrunners on the almost $600 million 144A transaction.

A report by Dealogic reported that global ABS volume increased 12% to $72.9 billion in 2011 year-to-date, up from $65.4 billion in 2010 year-to-date. This was the first year-on-year volume boost for ABS since 2007.

A new ruling yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has commingled three mortgage lawsuits against Bank of America (BofA) into one big legal effort, with a Pennsylvania pension fund taking the lead.

The RMBS private-label market will continue to be stalled by the still-weakened housing market, according to a Standard & Poor’s report. The release also warned investors not to mistake a potential flurry of issuance in the coming months with a lasting recovery.

In May, the delinquency rate on U.S. CMBS loans fell four basis points to 9.18%.

The residential loan market is looking a little better these days, according to a new forecast from Fannie Mae.