Finance

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan modifications and refinancings showed substantial increases in 1Q10, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) Foreclosure Prevention & Refinance report.

Markit will now include commodities in the range of instruments covered by its portfolio valuations service, the firm announced today.

Independent broker-dealer Braver Stern Securities hired investment strategist Scott Buchta as a managing director and the head of investment strategy.

Think of the investors. That's what everyone in the debate over fair-value accounting says, regardless of which side they're on.

Auto-backed deals by Ally Bank and Santander Consumer U.S.A. priced on Friday.

A major decline in the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) payment amount this year is placing downgrade pressure on some U.S. tobacco settlement ABS bonds, according to Fitch Ratings.

Fitch Ratings has updated its criteria for rating emerging market securitizations, focusing on the relevance of sovereign ratings on different transactions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Thomas Priore and three of his affiliated firms with fraudulently managing MBS as the housing market was starting to crash in 2007.

Amherst Securities Group named John Caputo as its primary CMBS trader, effective June 21.

Dechert has named Thomas Vartanian, David Ansell, and Robert Ledig as partners in its Washington, D.C. office.

Ambac Financial Group announced Thursday that it entered into a pair of debt-for-equity exchanges June 11, meaning that it purchased back its own debt by offering debt-holders a stake in the company.

Investors believe financing and buyer interest in "second-tier" commercial real estate markets remains limited, according to a new survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The big three credit rating agencies have long made the disclaimer that investors should not use ratings as a substitute for independent judgment. Now regulators want banks to prove they aren't doing that.

Mortgage bankers originated $16.3 billion of jumbo loans in the first quarter, a 2% decline from the same period last year but a much stronger performance than the overall market, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News.

It appears that House/Senate conferees are leaning toward adopting risk retention language requiring issuers of residential MBS to hold a "vertical" slice of securitized assets, which means mortgage bankers will be affected by losses on all tranches, not just one.

Impact Community Capital priced an over $302 million affordable multifamily housing mortgage deal.

Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp. will auction off a portfolio of mortgage servicing rights tied to $1 billion of loans controlled by Freddie Mac.

Citigroup has hired Peter Babej, the former co-head of Americas financial institutions at Deutsche Bank, according to a Bloomberg report.

Standard & Poor's has commented on one of the key issues looming over the European housing market.

After financial reform, GSEs should be the next sector dealt with, said Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chair Sheila Bair at the University of Pennsylvania today. Text of her speech follows: