Finance

Cole Real Estate Investments hired William Broms as director of acquisitions. The move was announced by Marc Nemer, president of the firm.

Dennis Cariello has joined DLA Piper's New York office. In his new position, Cariello will continue to focus on higher education issues. He will also be serving as a co-chair of the new education and education services group.

Mortgage bankers originated $25.9 billion of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed mortgages in July, down nearly 2% from June, according to new figures released by the agency.

Mortgage rates continue to set new record lows with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate based on the Freddie Mac'sweekly survey dropping to below 4.40% with the no-points rate slightly over 4.50%.

Fitch Ratings stated that as of July 20 defaults on U.S. bank Trust Preferred Security (TruPS) CDOs eclipsed the 14% mark on 11 new bank defaults.

In late August, an entity of the State of Mexico known as IFREM originated a roughly Ps4 billion ($306 million), 20-year deal backed by flows from property registration fees. Structured by MBIA unit LatAm Capital Advisors (LCA), the transaction was novel on a number of fronts.

In May, a water project vital to the Peruvian capital of Lima issued a securitization in the domestic market.

The securitization market just can't seem to get a break. From tougher regulations to a battered economy, our industry seems at times to be facing an all-out assault.

Loan modifications are being credited with playing a key role in the improving delinquency picture for home mortgages, but housing economists and analysts caution that the industry isn't out of the woods quite yet.

While it's clear that tighter rules for securitization are on their way, varying approaches to the issue by different agencies are making bankers and issuers uneasy.

The Federal Reserve announced in August that the central bank would be purchasing Treasurys by using the proceeds from maturing MBS to support the country's economic recovery.

Citigroup has arranged a $600 million CLO that will be managed by Guggenheim Investment Management, according to sources.

While the Wall Street reform bill passed this summer did not directly address the GSEs, it nonetheless affected future prospects for restructuring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As I wrote last month, the bill created a series of impediments to any timely revival of the private-label MBS market, making the housing markets highly dependent on agency-backed funding. As a result, GSE reform will be limited by the need to avoid short-term disruptions that would freeze financing for the housing markets.

The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy has proved to have long-reaching repercussions for the European ABS market.

The risk of non-calls in European RMBS was reignited last month when Portuguese bank Caixa Economica Montepio Geral said it would not exercise the scheduled call for its Pelican 2 RMBS.

Mortgage applications continued to increase, but at a slower pace even as mortgage rates set new record lows.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a report Tuesday cautioning credit rating agencies about deceptive ratings conduct.

CMBS servicers are not only performing loan extensions but have ventured into other forms of loan modifications as well, according to a just-released NewOak Capital report.

Volkswagen Leasing is prepping to launch a €475 million ($602 million) auto lease ABS deal dubbed VCL 12 with pricing scheduled for next week, published reports indicate.

Rabobank hired Tony Muoser as a managing director for its renewable energy and infrastructure finance (REIF) Americas group. He will be based in New York.