RMBS

A new ruling from the Southern District Court of New York could have enough force to push a Michigan subprime securities lawsuit against Bear Stearns to trial, state officials said Wednesday.

Standard & Poor’s is considering whether Assured Guaranty’s credit is really 'AA-plus'. The credit-default swap market made that decision a while ago and its verdict is no.

Consumers bought just 321,000 homes in 2010, the lowest reading in almost half a century, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday morning by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The default rates rose for each of the indices this month, which were at 15.7%, 13.5%, 14.3%, and 12.2% CDR for the 06-1 through 07-2 indices, reported Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts. This represents changes of 7.3, 3.6, 4.5, and 2.7 points, respectively.

Fitch Ratings, in a recent report, updated the “Challenge Factors” (CFs) assigned to 36 emerging market countries in 2009.

Mortgage application activity fell 12.9% in the holiday-shortened week ending Jan. 14 with both refinancings and purchases declining.

As the paintball game speeds up and all major players dodge faster to avoid designation as bearers of systemic risk, let's not get fixated on "too big to fail" as the past or future cause of the disaster.

Ambac Assurance Corp.’s rehabilitation plan was accepted Tuesday by a Wisconsin state court.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft hired Joseph Beach for its Charlotte office as special counsel in the capital markets department. His practice will focus on loan finance and securitization.

It may not be clear when the private-label securitized market will come back, but the developments that will likely shape it are coming into focus: the GSEs and the pending qualified residential mortgage (QRM) definition/risk retention regulation.