Finance

Bond insurer Syncora Guarantee late Thursday announced it had executed a master transaction agreement with 25 financial counterparties that lets it commute or restructure all of its $56 billion in credit-default swap exposure.

Two Bank of America credit deals have priced, Bank of America Credit Card Trust Class C 2009-1 Notes and Bank of America Credit Card Trust Class B 2009-1 Notes. The deals are $250 million and $100 million, respectively. Both these transactions were led by Banc of America Securities.

American Express is in the market with a $1.2 billion TALF-eligible credit card deal, which is led by Barclays Capital, RBS Securities and Morgan Stanley.

Jon Daurio, chairman and CEO of Kondaur Capital, a mortgage investing vulture fund, said the closing of a private equity firm that pledged up to $1 billion for his investments will not slow his firm's growth, according to a report published in The Orange County Register."

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has insured only $13.8 billion in mortgages with loan balances above the old $417,000 conforming loan limit, including $5.3 billion in California and $2.5 billion in New York, according to new government data.

David Rosenblum has left his position as portfolio manager and head of structured credit at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

A test run of the government's bad-loan removal plan has been shelved as officials struggle to attract both sellers and buyers.

Wyndham Worldwide Corp. announced that it has completed a term securitization. The firm issued $225 million of investment grade ABS notes via Sierra Timeshare 2009-1 Receivables Funding, an indirect subsidiary of Wyndham Vacation Ownership.

Fund manager Henderson Group is set to launch its first European ABS opportunity fund to take advantage of prices in the sector. The new fund will be managed by Jim Irvine, who is head of structured products at the firm.

With bids for the fourth round of the Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF) due on Tuesday, several ABS deals are currently in the market.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published for public comment an exposure draft of draft guidance regarding fair value measurement, according to a release from the IASB.

Freddie Mac's purchases of refinanced mortgages slowed in April despite the launch of the Obama administration's new program to help borrowers with high loan-to-value ratios refinance into lower cost loans.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) effort to sell troubled bank loans is facing headwinds, including congressional skepticism about the public-private investment funds that would provide government financing for investors, according to agency chairman Sheila Bair.

Delinquencies of U.S. mortgages in the first quarter shot up to levels not seen in nearly four decades, snaring a wider range of borrowers and suggesting that the U.S. housing market remains under severe stress.

Sales of newly built homes sold at an annualized rate of 352,000 units in April, a meager increase from the previous month with the luxury market continuing to suffer tremendously.

Fixed mortgage rates moved higher, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 4.91% with an average 0.7 point, up from 4.82% last week.

According to a litigation report from MortgageDaily.com, an online resource that provides mortgage news analysis, the number of mortgage-related lawsuits filed in the first quarter of this year jumped to 81, a more than 50% increase from the 50 cases tracked during the same quarter in 2008.

Global Leveraged Capital has formed an advisory arm, GLC Advisors & Co., to advise debtors, creditors and stakeholders in distressed companies, the firm said today.

Broadpoint Capital, a broker-dealer subsidiary of Broadpoint Securities Group, hired Frank Gehring as a managing director and global head of rates sales.

In April 2009 HOPE NOW members and the industry at large modified 127,000 mortgages and completed 143,000 repayment plans totaling 270,000 interventions, "the largest number in any month" since the alliance started to compile data.