Finance

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has succeeded in limiting the supply of distressed properties to hit the market and, as a result, has helped stabilize prices. That success may be short-lived.

Though payment card volume at many merchants is still down from a year earlier, a new report from Capital Access Network showed that the decline is slowing — and that spending at high-end restaurants is even increasing.

Fixed and hybrid ARM rates set new record lows for the week ending Aug. 12, according to Freddie Mac.

KDX Ventures, a joint venture between DebtX and KEMA Advisors, will sell $234 million in multifamily and healthcare loans for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD).

Fortress Investment Group (FIG) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire nearly 80% of American International Group (AIG) subsidiary American General Finance (AGF). The transaction is set to close at the end of 2011's first quarter.

Analysts at Barclays Capital expect the additional housing-rescue measures announced today will have little-to-no impact on agency prepayments.

Despite historically low mortgage rates, mortgage application activity increased just 0.6% for the week ending Aug. 6.

Standard & Poor's is requesting feedback on a supplementary analytic that offers an estimate of the recovery level, given a default, for individual CMBS tranches under various scenarios, S&P said in a report released today.

Even as they begin dropping credit ratings as a supervisory source, regulators signaled Tuesday they are worried about abandoning their use altogether, suggesting that potential alternatives are not much of an improvement.

JPMorgan Chase acquired $3.5 billion of multifamily and commercial real estate loans from Citigroup, saying that the "highly desirable" portfolio mirrors the Chase commercial term-lending group's focus on "excellent borrowers in stable markets."

Cantor Fitzgerald and CIM Group (CIM) formed Cantor Commercial Real Estate (CCRE), a real estate financing business that will originate fixed- and floating-rate mortgages and mezzanine loans backed by diverse real estate assets located mainly in the urban areas of major U.S. markets. The newly formed firm will engage in securitizations of these loans.

The Federal Reserve will be reinvesting principal payments from agency MBS and agency debt into longer-term Treasury securities.

Wireless Capital Partners (WCP) is in the market with its first-ever term securitization backed by multiple assets and ownership interests in sites used for wireless communication equipment and other related purposes.

Ginnie Mae issued $37.8 billion in MBS in July. Meanwhile, Ginnie Mae II single-family pool issuance reached over $21.8 billion, while Ginnie Mae I single-family pools were close to $14.6 billion.

Insurance holding company Ambac Financial Group reported a net loss in the second quarter, despite big gains in the value of its insured derivatives, and warned that it may be unable to pay its debts in a year.

One blueprint for turning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into privately run enterprises that is getting some play at Treasury comes from Redwood Trust — the firm that made headlines this spring when it pulled off the first private-label jumbo securitization in almost two years.

Although still rising, the slowing rate of U.S. prime RMBS serious delinquencies might mean they are nearing a peak, according to Fitch Ratings' latest Performance Metrics results.

Bank of America, in a new public filing, said it had $11.2 billion of "unresolved" mortgage buyback requests at June, a 50% spike since the beginning of the year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) said Tuesday it would create two new divisions – one to handle systemic resolutions and the other devoted to consumer protection – in response to the enactment of the regulatory reform law.

The aggregate value of commercial real estate (CRE) loans priced by DebtX that back CMBS rose to 77.4% as of June 30 from 76.6% as of May 28, according to a release from the firm. Loan values were 76% as of June 30, 2009.