Finance

The last time the bank loan market saw a spattering of new CLOs, Twitter was just getting started and Britney Spears was still growing back all of her hair. Now, the details of four new CLOs have begun circulating, one of which will consist of new loans, a source familiar with the deal said.

A loan sales executive has departed Deutsche Bank for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Leveraged Finance News has confirmed. The move comes as both banks are adding staff in various credit market positions.

New home sales soared 26.9% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000, the largest monthly increase in 43 years, rebounding from a record low in February, the Commerce Department reported today.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch hired Jonathan Shiff as head of Americas corporate derivatives and foreign exchange, the bank said this week.

World Financial Network National Bank has registered an S-3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Unison Ground Lease Funding is in the market with two transactions backed by real estate used as wireless communication sites. The series of the deals are 2010-1 and 2010-2.

Two Harbors Investment Corp., a Minnetonka, Minn.-based REIT that invests in MBS, has priced a public offering of 11,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $8.90 per share, for gross proceeds of approximately $102.4 million.

Sales of existing homes rose moderately in March to 5.35 million units annualized as consumers rushed into purchase contracts to take advantage of expiring tax credits for first-time and move-up buyers.

Fitch Ratings announced its plan to address the implementation of an amendment to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 17g-5 providing for certain disclosures pertaining to all new structured finance credit ratings published by the rating agency.

In a final nudge on regulatory reform Thursday, President Obama urged lawmakers and bankers to put politics aside and support the legislation.

Fixed-related mortgage rates were flat to slightly lower for the week ending April 22, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Wells Fargo on Wednesday promised that it would begin modifying second mortgages under a new wrinkle in the government's Home Affordable Modification Program.

During the boom years, fraudulent property-flipping schemes bedeviled the mortgage industry. As the housing market recovers, the scourge du jour is called flopping.

Fifteen months after Assured Guaranty Corp. agreed to reinsure $13 billion of CIFG Assurance’s public finance portfolio, the process of transitioning from one insurer to the other is not completed, meaning insured bondholders could be at risk.

The unexpected closure of airspace in Europe caused by the recent volcanic ash disruption is not expected to impact ratings of aviation-related structured finance deals, Fitch Ratings said.

Ford Motor Credit sold its $1.09 billion auto loan securitization. The bookrunners on the deal were JPMorgan Securities, Morgan Stanley and RBS Securities, according to a Reuters report.

The federal government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) has subpoenaed Moody’s Corp. for allegedly failing to provide requested information.

Lenders would be exempt from risk retention ratios on MBS issuance if they originate low-risk, fully documented mortgages under an amendment Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., plans to offer when the Senate takes up the regulatory reform bill.

Deutsche Bank said Tuesday that it has made seven new hires for its emerging-markets business in Brazil and Mexico.

PennyMac has named former Bank of America executive Steve Bailey as its chief servicing officer, effective immediately.