ABS

American Banker in its Pipeline reported that two mortgage insurers have recently been given the OK to keep writing new business even if their risk-to-capital ratios exceed the 25-to-1 maximum permitted in 16 states.

Mortgage servicers completed nearly 50,000 permanent HAMP modifications in January, up from 35,000 in the previous month, as the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is to be finally gaining traction.

Though regulatory reform has stolen center stage on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration remains intent on wiping out the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), and its demise appears to be just a matter of time.

Mortgage rates declined further this week with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate back to its lowest level since mid-December.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) suffered a rare court defeat Tuesday, as a federal judge sided with a bank that had challenged an enforcement order.

The amount of outstanding credit card-backed bonds has been falling since 2008 as maturing securities have exceeded new issuance, a trend that Wall Street has forecast will accelerate sharply this year.

Minnesota-based Advantus Capital Management has made some significant structural and consolidation changes to its portfolio management and research roster.

Scott Colbourne was named senior portfolio manager of Sprott Asset Management, a subsidiary of Sprott.

A Standard & Poor’s survey found that investors expect improvement in European RMBS collateral performance but marked deterioration in U.S. RMBS collateral performance.

USAA Federal Savings Bank is in the market with a $1 billion auto-loan backed deal. The offering is led by JPMogan Securities and Wells Fargo Securities.

Tony Renzi, a 24-year veteran of GMAC Mortgage and its affiliates, has been forced out of his position as chief operating officer and president, according to company employees who work under him.

Mayer Brown hired Josh Cohn, a derivatives specialist, as a partner its the New York office and the leader of the U.S. derivatives and structured products practice and co-leader of the global derivatives and structured products practice.

Despite mortgage rates holding below 5%, mortgage application activity slipped 2.1% for the week ending Feb. 12.

The prepayment story in conventionals has gotten more interesting — for the near term at least — following last week's announcement from both GSEs that they would buyout 120 day (or more) delinquent mortgage loans.

Moody’s Investors Service said there is no rating effect on Unicredit’s Italian RMBS deals following the implementation of the Piano Famiglie payment holiday scheme for Italian mortgage borrowers.

Eurostat, the European Union (EU) statistical office wants Greece to give an accounting of structured finance deals that were undertaken from 2001 to 2008, which might have allowed the government to conceal billions of euros of new debt from the public and regulators.

While second liens are stumbling blocks in many modifications, when the interests of the first and second mortgages are aligned it often results in a principal reduction, according to Laura Goodman, senior managing director at Amherst Securities Group.

Stung by its investments in private-label MBS, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is suing several Wall Street firms in an effort to have them repurchase assets.

Broadridge Financial Solutions released the Decision Support Tools (DSTools) functionality for MBS Expert, its MBS processing solution.

BNP Paribas appointed Giovanni Pini as head of ABS strategy and Olivier Morand-Duval as European head of ABS trading. Perry Inglis also joined as head of ABS valuation and origination.