Finance

Fitch Ratings said today that the performance metrics of commercial real estate (CRE) continues to deteriorate at an unprecedented pace. The CRE market is where significant risk exposure exists for the majority of the rating agency's U.S. bank universe.

Integrated Asset Services (IAS) announced the launch of Statebridge. The new company will provide customized and investor-focused servicing for the mortgage industry.

Most of the major credit card trusts showed generally positive performance over the July

Greek Bank Piraeus Bank Group completed three new loan securitizations totaling €3.5 billion ($4.9 billion).

National Australia Bank plans to buy Challenger Financial Services' mortgage business, along with A$4 billion ($3.2 billion) of residential mortgages held in warehousing for A$385 million.

Marc Seidner has landed at PIMCO, where he takes on the role of executive vice president and portfolio manager at the firm’s Newport, California office.

Mortgage loan delinquency, borrowers 60 or more days past due, increased for the tenth straight quarter, hitting an all-time national average high of 5.81% for the second quarter of 2009, according to the latest data from TransUnion.com.

CIT Group successfully completed a tender offer, the company said today. Bondholders representing 59.81% of CIT's $1 billion in outstanding floating-rate senior secured notes tendered their bonds by the offer’s expiration date of Aug. 14. The bonds mature today. Despite this success, analysts have strong doubts about CIT’s ability to avoid bankruptcy.

MF Global expanded its fixed-income business and introduced a new institutional sales group.

The U.K's low interest rate environment is supporting lower-than-expected levels of bank possessions. This bodes well for U.K. RMBS, said analysts at Moody’s Investors Service.

Moody’s Investors Service has softened its view on the risk of the Turkish government meddling in financial future flow deals, an unambiguous positive for transactions backed by diversified payment rights (DPR) and credit card vouchers (CCV).

The Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department today approved an extension to the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).

The City of New York is in the market with a $59 million deal backed by tax liens. JPMorgan Securities is leading the offering.

Every month Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are paying bondholders about $1 billion to cover seriously delinquent homeowners.

Almost one in three mortgaged homes in the U.S. — representing 15.2 million loans — now has negative equity, according to a new report issued by First American CoreLogic (FACL).

Chase priced two credit card transactions from its Chase Issuance Trust, Class C (2009-5) and Class B (2009-4). Both transactions are lead by JPMorgan Securities.

Freddie Mac refinanced nearly 29,000 loans under the Obama administration's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which is designed to give borrowers with loan-to-value ratios above 80% a chance to refinance and lower their mortgage payments.

The American Bankers Association (ABA) released a white paper that outlined concerns over the expansion of mark-to-market accounting and the lack of due process and divergence between the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on projects relating to financial instruments.

Moody's Investors Service launched a newsletter offering investors information and analysis about key credit issues affecting the RMBS market.

Joseph J. Murin, the president of the Ginnie Mae, is stepping down after just over a year at the federal agency.