Securitization

Capital One Financial Corp. has taken the second step that had seemed inevitable.The McLean, Va., bank has agreed to buy the monoline U.S. credit card and private-label credit card businesses of HSBC for a $2.6 billion premium, according to press releases issued Wednesday by Capital One and HSBC. That is an 8.75% premium for the roughly $30 billion card portfolio, the releases said.

With Bank of America dangerously weighed down by costly acquisitions, its longstanding contention that it could jettison its troubled mortgage unit Countrywide must hold considerable appeal within the company's executive offices.

Spurs Capital is coming to market with two small loan pools: a $25 million package of performing/sub-performing product, and $20 million worth of nonperforming mortgages.The offering circular is expected to reach interested investors some time on Wednesday, said one official.

Bank of America is trying to sell a $10 billion chunk of Freddie Mac mortgage servicing rights, after failing to unload a larger $50 billion package of MSRs, according to industry officials.

The Obama administration is seeking ideas from market participants on how Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) can employ bulk sales of foreclosed homes, turning these units into rentals that will help stabilize local housing markets.

The Carlyle Group said today it recently added $1 billion in new CLO assets under management.

Highland Capital Management has been appointed the manager of a $243 million CLO previously managed by CypressTree Investment Management.

The Refinance Index surged 30.4% to ~3630.5 for the week ending Aug. 5 as the 30-year average contract interest rate declined eight basis points to 4.37%.

In an unusual — and sure-to-be-humbling — move, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan will submit to a public grilling by a big investor on Wednesday. Hedge fund manager Bruce Berkowitz will host a 90 minute conference call with Moynihan starting at 1 p.m. EST — and he wants your "toughest questions" for Moynihan, whose troubled company's shares have fallen almost 50% this year.Berkowitz, founder of Fairholme Capital Management, said last week that the "purpose of the call is to better understand how Bank of America is navigating the economic environment." He invited skeptics to participate on the call. ASR sister publication American Banker took him at his word and sent along the list below.

The National Association of Independent Housing Professionals (NAIHP) said it has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) to discuss the issue of loan buyback claims being forced upon mortgage brokers.

Many more servicers are using deficiency judgments to recoup losses, DBRS analysts said.

Fannie Mae, in a new quarterly filing, said it is receiving "higher amounts" from lenders on loan repurchase requests while its pipeline of buyback claims on defaulted mortgages continues to grow.

As the stock prices of the big banks cratered on Monday, particularly for Bank of America, pundits and industry observers began worrying that a second financial crisis was in the offing, including the possibility of the failure of a large financial institution.

Fitch Ratings intends to have expanded disclosure of representations, warranties and enforcement mechanisms in its global structured finance rating reports starting Sept. 26.

CMBS issuance could edge up in the short run, as predicted by a recent spike in origination, Standard & Poor's said in a release. CMBS conduits origination soared 638% in Q2 year-on-year, and jumped 210% from Q1, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Assocation released last week. There is a caveat though: recent reports suggest that lending has tanked.

A gauge of CMBS tenant risk in the U.S. has scarcely been nicked by the U.S. downgrade, according to Standard & Poor's.

GSO Capital Partners, the credit arm of private equity firm The Blackstone Group, has priced a $369 million collateralized loan obligation.

SNR Denton hired Scott Samlin as a partner in the capital markets practice. Samlin was previously at Morgan Stanley where he was the executive director for the residential mortgage and lending compliance business. He will be based in New York.

CIT Group has appointed Nelson J. Chai as president, the company said today.

Ares Management is expanding its presence in the European CLO market.