Finance

It will take five years to turn the new federal financial reform law into rules and regulation, an industry expert from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) said last week.

Fitch Solutions appointed Neil Smith as the managing director for its research services group.

Five of Spain's smaller regional lenders, known as cajas, were among the seven banks to fail the European Union stress test.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said that U.S. housing policy, with its reliance on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is "not sustainable."

Lewis Ranieri, the co-inventor of MBS, believes the yield on the 10-year Treasury could fall to as low as 2.5% this year.

Onex Credit Partners, a unit of private equity firm Onex Corp, has hired Jack Yang, a loan market veteran who helped expand Highland Capital Management’s credit strategies business, as a managing partner. This hire indicates that Onex is looking to expand its leveraged finance business.

Some European market players said that there is increasing appetite by outside buyers for European ABS.

Kondaur Capital Corp., an active investor in distressed and underperforming mortgages, is marketing a $79 million MBS collateralized by $263 million of nonperforming loans (NPL).The bond is being underwritten by Royal Bank of Scotland in what appears to be a private placement, the offering. A copy of the offering prospectus was provided to National Mortgage News.

Only seven banks failed the European stress test results for financial institutions. The question remains whether the test has done enough to ensure the strength of European financial institutions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed to Congress to amend the definition of “security” under federal securities laws to include life settlements.

CMBS' loss seems to be the credit tenant lease (CTL) market’s gain. The latter has shown robust growth in the face of the financial crisis and in its aftermath, mainly owing to the shutdown of the CMBS and conduit markets.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has arranged a $300 million CLO, surprising market participants who, after the worsening of the debt crisis overseas, weren’t expecting to see new CLOs for some time. In fact, other deals are in the works as well, sources say.

General Motors Co.'s deal to buy AmeriCredit Corp. says as much about the state of consumer finance as it does about the auto industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will give securitization issuers six months to omit credit ratings from ABS registration statements filed under Regulation AB, the SEC announced Thursday in a 'no action' letter.

Sales of existing single-family homes fell 5.6% in June, following a 1.6% decline in May, a decent showing in the wake of federal tax credits for homebuyers expiring in the early spring.

Ambac Financial Group Friday completed the sale of RangeMark Financial Services, the advisory services company it helped launch.

Three trade associations — American Securitization Forum (ASF), Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), and the CRE Finance Council — have all issued comment letters to the U.S. Treasury on GSE reform.

General Motors will acquire AmeriCredit in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $3.5 billion, the firm announced today.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has appointed Kathy Marquardt as associate vice president of commercial servicing and council coordinator, effective Aug. 9.

Mortgage application activity increased 7.6% in the week ending July 16 with refinancing and purchase activity higher.