Finance

Sidley Austin hired Kevin Blauch as a partner in New York in the structured finance and securitization practice.

While Bank of America's settlement with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae provides greater clarity for its ultimate exposure regarding representations and warranty losses, there is still uncertainty for the bank holding company regarding losses in the areas the deal does not cover, a report from Fitch Ratings said.

SLM Corp., more commonly known as Sallie Mae, has appointed John (Jack) Remondi as president and chief operating officer.

Discover Financial Services said it acquired the Student Loan Corp. (SLC). The acquisition included SLC's ongoing private student loan business as well as private student loans and other assets totalling $4.2 billion.

Private investment firm Starwood Capital Group, Greenwich, Conn., has purchased a nonperforming commercial real estate (CRE)loan portfolio with an outstanding principal balance of $157 million from an undisclosed Midwest regional bank.

Mortgage rates slipped a few basis points in the week ending Jan. 6. According to Freddie Mac, 30-year. fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.77% with an average 0.8 point, down nine basis points from last week. Still, the no-point rate remains near 5% and removes many borrowers from the refinancing window.

Shares of MBIA jumped by nearly one-third in the last week as traders bet that the bond insurance holding company will win or settle a series of lawsuits.

Residential servicers that are part of the HOPE NOW alliance completed 112,022 loan modifications in November, a 10% drop from the previous month as proprietary modifications fell to their lowest level since the fall of 2009.

Gleacher & Co. said Tuesday that it has started a residential mortgage banking subsidiary called Descap Mortgage Funding.

U.S. Bank National Association, which is U.S. Bancorp's lead bank, has completed the purchase of the domestic and European-based securitization trust administration businesses of Bank of America. The deal closed on Dec. 30.

There is a pickup in CMBS issuance at the start of this year, which falls in line with expectations of a busier new-issue CMBS market for 2011.

House prices are likely to go down during the first half of 2011 and then rebound in the second half, according to many forecasters.

Mortgage application activity declined 3.9% in the week ending Dec. 24 in response to higher mortgage rates and the year-end holiday slowdown.

Ever since private-label MBS litigation began, aggrieved investors have faced an uneasy trade-off between cost and thoroughness: They must prove their losses stem from systemic underwriting flaws, but they can ill afford the time and money required to bicker over how each loan was underwritten.

The U.S. CMBS delinquency rate rose again in December with the percentage of loans 30 or more days delinquent, in foreclosure or REO climbing 27 basis points to 9.20%.

CIT Group has completed and executed a service agreement with the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) to service $7.4 billion of its portfolio of government-guaranteed student loans now serviced by CIT.

Credit card ABS collateral performance measures started the new year with continued across-the-board performance improvements as shown by the latest index results from Fitch Ratings.

While much of the next Congress will focus on making changes to the Dodd-Frank Act, lawmakers are also likely to deal with problems in mortgage servicing.

After months of silence, the Obama administration is close to spilling the best-kept secret in town: what it wants to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

While there are likely to be more settlements between the GSEs and mortgage lenders, a report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) said the price of a settlement "might be too high for some originators who believe that their underwriting standards were strong."