Finance

Commercial and multifamily mortgage originations are at their highest level in nearly two years — driven by sequential growth in the health care and multifamily sectors.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is in the market with a €3.47 billion ($4.9 billion) Italian RMBS deal, a rarity among a primarily U.K. and Dutch dominated European RMBS market.

The 30-year fixed mortgages averaged one basis point higher to 4.24% with an average 0.8 point in the week ending Nov. 4, according to Freddie Mac.

Independent broker-dealer Braver Stern Securities hired Peter Howard as a managing director and head trader of CDOs, CLOs and esoteric ABS.

Fitch Ratings assigned a Negative Outlook for the entire U.S. residential mortgage servicer ratings sector on increased concerns surrounding alleged procedural defects in the judicial foreclosure process.

U.K.-based Future Capital Partners (FCP) appointed three senior investment professionals to its growing real estate team.

CMBS spreads tightened on the back off better-than-expected CMBS loss projections from BlackRock.

KfW Banking Group said it participated as an anchor investor in securitizations focusing on SMEs worth €0.7 billion ($1 billion) up to the end of the third quarter.

Last Monday the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) published the responses to questions from its Oct 28 RMBS/CMBS conference call.

Mortgage application activity was mixed in the week ending Oct. 29 with refinancing activity declining, while purchases rose.

The Federal Reserve will move ahead with its much-speculated second round of quantitative easing to promote a stronger economic recovery pace and to ensure that inflation, over time, remain at levels consistent with its mandate.

Freddie Mac recovered $1.7 billion from its seller/servicers in the third quarter, taking in cash or getting bad loans off its books because firms that sold mortgages to the GSE bought them back.

Ally Financial on Wednesday reported a third-quarter profit of $269 million, its third consecutive quarter in the black, driven by strong results in both its mortgage banking, and automotive finance units.

After pricing a sizeable securitzation backed by residential mortgages in mid-September, the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) is in the market again. This time the NCUA is out with a CMBS transaction worth $3.76 billion.

The CMBS delinquency rate dropped sharply in October. The biggest reason for this dip was due to loans being liquidated at a faster pace and leaving the universe of troubled assets, according to a report from TreppWire.

A FFELP-backed student loan ABS is in the market called Panhandle-Plains Higher Education Authority 2010-1.

In the face of the increasingly uncertain mortgage environment, many investors are electing to lock in gains before yearend in the non-agency space.

Principia Partners recently surveyed over 500 investors, issuers, regulators and other structured finance professionals on the subject of investor due diligence.

Ginnie Mae later this month will start providing MBS investors with new information about the percentage of modified single-family mortgages in its MBS pools.

Katten Muchin Rosenman hired five structured finance lawyers from Dewey & LeBoeuf, including five structured finance partners in New York and a financial products tax partner in Washington, D.C.