RMBS

Michael Williams, the president and chief executive of Fannie Mae, said Wednesday that the government-sponsored enterprise is preparing for an expected overhaul of the U.S. housing system by Congress and the Obama administration.

Fairholme Capital Management’s motto is “Ignore the Crowd,” and the hedge fund is sticking close to that maxim with its roughly $200 million investment in MBIA.

Moody's Investors Service has updated its global methodology on REITs as well as other commercial real estate firms.

Fannie Mae issued $40.2 billion of MBS in June, up 11% in May, but far below the $130 billion it issued in the same month a year ago during a major boom in refinancings.

European ABS looks set to enter August on a quiet note. On the primary side, there are no new public offerings in the pipeline after last week's launch and pricing of Santander's auto loan ABS deal.

The European Central Bank (ECB) raised the haircuts for repo lending including ABS assets by four percentage points to 16% from 12%. The new haircuts for ABS lending will be valid as of January 2011.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Thursday charged Citigroup with misleading investors about its exposure to subprime mortgage-related securities.

The Senate Banking Committee approved the nominations of Janet Yellen, Peter Diamond and Sarah Bloom Raskin to be members of the Federal Reserve Board.

The House Financial Services Committee agreed late Wednesday to make changes to a bill to establish a covered bond market in order to address some of the concerns raised by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

The latest ABX remittance data showed that CDR levels increased modestly in July, as average values for each index ranged from flat to up 1.4 points, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.