Coronavirus

The actions include cutting the federal funds rate to between 0% and 0.25% and other steps to ease economic stress from the spread of the coronavirus.

If banks are unable to weather the economic fallout from the outbreak, calls for more dramatic reforms could get louder.

Increased refinancing volume led Fannie Mae to raise its 2020 estimate by $300 billion and 2021 projection by $280 billion.

Not so long after Treasury bond yields experienced an unprecedented drop, the average 30-year mortgage rate rose, reflecting volatility related to the coronavirus as well as capacity issues on multiple levels.

Wells Fargo reports senior bondholders still hold significant protections against a worldwide slowdown in travel or a decline in aircraft values despite the reclassification of the global coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic.

Prices for major term loans issued by operators such as Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Caesars Entertainment have fallen in recent weeks as investors grow worried about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on global tourist and business travel.

Banks may be protected from a direct hit, but they have invested in vehicles that include such loans, potentially exposing them to defaults.

Kathy Kraninger was grilled about whether her agency and others were doing enough to cushion consumers from the economic blow of the coronavirus crisis.

Mortgage companies that borrow heavily to keep their operations running may face financial pressure from coronavirus-related market volatility as it affects the valuations of collateral securing their financing.

Sen. Mark Warner led a group of Democratic senators in calling on bank, credit union and GSE regulators to give detailed instructions on helping consumer and commercial borrowers hurt by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Exchange traded funds tracking leveraged-loan performance saw sharp declines on Monday, following a Friday leveraged loan index decline that was the steepest in nearly a decade.

The Structured Finance Association has canceled its Canadian industry conference in May, while IMN has called off a CRE CLO confab scheduled in NY this week.

Mortgage lenders could benefit from the surge in refinancing due to widening market spreads, and that could help offset damage to servicing rights portfolio valuations, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

The agencies recommend steps banks should take to proactively prevent disruption of operations, minimize contact between staff and customers, and plan for how affected employees reenter the workplace, among other things.

U.S. lawmakers are pushing regulators to provide room for banks to work out loans with businesses and consumers who may be affected by the coronavirus.

In announcing the central bank’s emergency rate cut, Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the Fed can only do so much.

Ample access to cash and debt, along with strong diversification strategies built into investment portfolios, will help asset managers and junk-rated corporate borrowers absorb any near-term substantial economic headwinds, according to Fitch Ratings.

The coronavirus has cut deeply into the volume of cargo crossing the docks at U.S. seaports in a further sign of the economic turmoil caused by the outbreak.

Any impact from the coronavirus outbreak on commercial and multifamily loan delinquencies won't be known for some time, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

The Federal Reserve has voted unanimously to cut the interest rate 50 basis points to 1.10% effective March 4, in the first emergency rate cut since 2008.