Finance

The European Parliament today gave the final seal of approval to a package of reforms that will cause a fundamental shift in the way banks, stock markets and insurance companies are supervised as of 2011.

Government-backed loans continued to grab a larger slice of the mortgage market last year, according to new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data released Monday.

It would appear that the days of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being “kinder and gentler” owners of problem mortgages could be coming to an end.

As reported by Structured Finances News yesterday, the auto sector is once again showing its dominance in terms of ABS new-issue volume with another transaction from Toyota Motor Credit Corp. (TMCC). The deal is called Toyota Auto Receivables 2010-C Owner Trust (TAOT 2010-C).

Standard & Poor's has launched Understanding Ratings, a new information and education resource for investors found on the Web site www.understandingratings.com.

Discover Financial Services highlighted just about everything, but credit cards in its fiscal third-quarter earnings report.

Defaults on commercial real estate loans are beginning to play a larger role in the failure of FDIC-insured institutions than construction loans, according to Trepp.

Single-family housing starts rose 2% to 438,000 units on an annualized basis during August, but multifamily construction soared by 53% during the month, according to new government figures released Tuesday morning.

If a home is underwater but the borrower keeps paying the second mortgage (though maybe not the first), can that junior lien be worth anywhere near face value?

General Electric Credit Corp. (GECC) has a new equipment lease transaction called GE Equipment Midticket LLC, 2010-1.

Discover Financial Services is continuing its push to ensure that future profitability is less dependent on plastic with its planned $600 million student loan acquisition.

The total dollar amount of outstanding mortgage subprime loans in the nation fell to $714 billion at June 30, a 45% decline from the peak back in 2007, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Barclays Capital researchers examined the effects of GMAC's foreclosure moratorium announcement in a report released today.

Landmark legislation in Greece on consumer debt could lower recoveries on mortgages that are already underwater, according to a recent report from Moody’s Investors Service.

As technical director of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Russell Golden is the person to whom financial institutions have been addressing their comment letters on a controversial proposal that would expand the use of fair value accounting.

Residential home sales leveled off in August after plunging 30% in July, according to the RE/MAX National Housing Report.

U.S. commercial real estate (CRE) prices as measured by Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPI) dropped 3.1% in July, which is the second straight monthly dip exceeding 3%.

Countrywide Financial Corp. founder and former chief executive Angelo Mozilo must face trial on regulators' claims he misled investors about risks tied to subprime lending, a judge ruled.

Specialty finance firm Woodbridge Structured Funding appointed of Jim Klohn as corporate general counsel.

This month Barclays Capital analysts are launching a new monthly publication called New Resi Synthetic Monitor. This offers a detailed examination of the valuation and collateral performance of the various ABX and PrimeX indices.