RMBS

In a report released this morning, Standard & Poor's analysts said covered bond issuance in 2012 should benefit from a bias for secured funding.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, through an affiliate, has increased an existing repurchase agreement with Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Capital.

Ranieri Real Estate Partners (RREP), New York, has established two new advisory services groups and as part of the initiative signed a definitive agreement to acquire boutique investment banking and advisory firm, Occom Capital Partners, which has offices in New York and Portland, Maine.

Lawmakers raised sharp questions Tuesday about the ties between the 14 largest mortgage servicers and the purportedly independent consultants that were hired to review their practices, putting a top bank regulatory official on the defensive.

An affiliate of Newcastle Investment Corp. – a publicly traded REIT – has agreed to pay $43.7 million to Nationstar Mortgage in exchange for receiving 65% of the interest payments on a $9.9 billion pool of MSRs.

JGWPT Holdings, the parent company of JG Wentworth and Peachtree Financial, closed its $204 million securitization of notes backed by structured settlement and fixed annuity payments.

Mortgage application activity rose 4.1% in the week ending Dec. 9 due solely to a jump in refinancing activity as mortgage rates declined.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has reached a settlement of roughly $64 million with former senior executives of Washington Mutual Bank, senior agency officials said Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley and MBIA have settled a series of lawsuits.

A little over three years ago insurance giant MetLife looked like a genius. It stuck its toe in the mortgage banking pond by purchasing the production arm of First Horizon, some of its MSRs, and kept adding to the business.By early 2011 it could boast that it ranked 12th in originations and 10th in servicing. In short, it bought a well-respected franchise at the bottom of the market and had little in the way of “legacy” problems to contend with. Profits were decent, but not exceedingly so.