Securitization

Cantor Fitzgerald yesterday filed a form S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue CMBS under its CCRE Commercial Mortgage Securities trust.

Mortgage rates continue to fall even lower. Freddie Mac reported its recent weekly survey shows the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.91%, the lowest point in four decades and the sixth time a new low has been reached during 2011.

Consumers soon will be paying more for government-backed mortgages now that the House and Senate have reached a deal to extend a payroll tax break for two months.The bill (H.R. 3630) pays for the payroll measure by hiking guarantee fees on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans by 10 basis points. Lenders will pay the extra points but, more than likely, will past the cost onto borrowers.

Housing production in California was up in November for the fourth consecutive month. But builders in the Golden State are still on track to start the third lowest number of units on record in 2011.

Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average weekly rate for a 30-year mortgage has inched down to another record low.

The Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reported an acceleration in foreclosure actions during the third quarter as servicers lifted voluntary moratoriums implemented in late 2010 as the robosigning scandal escalated.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) believes California Attorney General Kamala Harris is pestering Fannie Mae with stupid questions. Whether that opinion is enough justification for the government-sponsored enterprise to ignore her queries is to be determined.

A federal judge issued a ruling this morning suggesting that the statute of limitations may have expired on National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) claims that Wall Street banks sold MBS they knew were faulty to corporate credit unions, potentially rendering NCUA suits filed earlier this year moot.

E*Trade Financial Corp. and its insurers have agreed to pay $79 million to settle a class-action suit brought by investors over losses in its mortgage and home-equity loan portfolios.

World Omni Financial has filed an S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue ABS under its World Omni Auto Lease Trust.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) will have California Congressman Ed Royce and Arizona Congressman David Schweikert as keynote speakers at its ASF 2012.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has reached a $335 million settlement with Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by Bank of America, in the largest fair lending action in history.

Residential loan applications fell by almost 3% for the week ending Dec. 16, despite continued historically low rates, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association(MBA).

UBS has hired Mike Weir, a veteran of Citadel Securities, as a loan trader.

Existing home sales increased 4.0% in November to a seasonally adjusted 4.42 million-unit rate, after a downwardly revised 4.25 million unit rate in October, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced Wednesday. NAR announced its benchmark revisions.

Financial analysts are unfazed by Moody's Investors Service's downgrade of MBIA and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. (NPFG).

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is considering a plan that would help underwater homeowners who have filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection.

The Federal Reserve has proposed to include conventional mortgages under ‘highly liquid assets’ for liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) purposes.

House Democrats are pushing back on the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) move to block the city of Chicago from enforcing an ordinance that requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to register their foreclosed properties with the city.