RMBS

Of the small pool of homeowners still refinancing their mortgages, a growing share are trading in lower monthly payments for the opportunity to pay down their debt faster.

This afternoon the New York Federal Reserve told dealers that it does not anticipate any further auctions of its Maiden Lane II (ML II) portfolio in the near term.

Tejas Securities Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Westech Capital Corp. hired Samir Shah as managing director and co-sales manager of structured products.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker's (TBW) former chairman and CEO Lee Farkas was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for leading a $2.9 billion fraud scheme that brought down the top-ranked nonbank lender, and its chief warehouse backer Colonial Bank.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York has approved the reorganization plan of Innkeepers USA Trust, a REIT that filed for Chapter 11 protection in July 2010.

Lawyers for NCUA told a federal judge here that the federal agency's June 20 suits against JP Morgan and RBS Securities should not exonerate officers and directors of WesCorp FCU in the 2009 failure of the one-time $34 billion corporate credit union.

Mortgage rates were little changed in the week ending June 30, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

If Bank of America Corp.'s proposal to settle its MBS claims for $8.5 billion is approved as is by a court, the deal would provide the template for other banks to clean up their own MBS messes.

Two years into the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), it appears the number of borrowers able to qualify for HAMP mods has leveled off while candidates for proprietary modifications surged in the first quarter.

New notices of default at the nation's private mortgage insurers far outpaced cures in May, ending a run of three months where the opposite was the case, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America (MICA).