ABS

Freddie Mac reported today that 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 5.32% with an average 0.7 point for the week ending July 2.

The Obama administration announced Wednesday an increase in the maximum loan-to-value ratio for mortgages under its Home Affordable Refinance Program by 20 percentage points, to 125%.

Data suggests that many banks binged on home equity loans last year and began tightening standards only in the second half — after housing prices had already staged a dramatic retreat.

Home lenders are finding that when you write mortgages for the Federal Housing Administration, the devil is in the details.

Chrysler Financial Services is in the market with a $1.5 billion TALF-eligible auto ABS deal. The offering is led by Deutsche Bank Securities.

Existing home sales bottomed out in the first quarter and sales should be up 3% when the final numbers come in for the second quarter, according to National Association of Realtors.

A strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency would even the playing field so community banks would not have to compete against unregulated mortgage bankers in offering products and services, according to the Treasury Department.

Freddie Mac's board of directors has selected Charles E. Haldeman Jr., a top executive at Putnam Investments, to be its next chief executive, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) first quarter Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Quarterly Data Book released yesterday reported diminished demand for commercial real estate, although negative conditions for the sector are waning.

Credit card ABS excess spread has fallen to levels not seen in ten years, according to the latest Credit Card Indexes report from Fitch Ratings. The rating agency added that U.S. consumers are still falling behind and defaulting on their credit cards.

The Luzerne County Retirement System will invest a portion of its portfolio with Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility (TALF) managers, said investment consultant Richard Hazzouri of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Barclays Capital analysts said that even in a severe stress scenario, U.K. nonconforming RMBS should not suffer losses nearly as severe as investors feared.

In May, mortgage lenders helped 249,000 homeowners complete workout solutions to help these borrowers stay in their homes, according to HOPE NOW.

A regulatory report on the pace of mortgage modifications was a decidedly mixed bag, showing that although servicers have increased the number of sustainable modifications, serious delinquencies among prime borrowers continue to rise.

Growing weakness in commercial real estate is poised to transform banking companies into accidental landlords — with a new set of headaches.

Federal regulators proposed new guidance Tuesday that would call on financial institutions to more closely monitor their liquidity risk.

Lender Processing Services has formed the LPS Real Estate Group, it announced in a press release today.

Pali Capital hired Matt Goldfarb, Peter Levine and William Tillinghast as part of an expansion of its new high yield sales and trading team.

Thierry Simon has been appointed CEO of Calyon in the Americas.

Wells Fargo & Co. has apparently found a buyer for a $600 million portfolio of non-performing subprime loans, according to investment banking officials.