Securitization

According to preliminary figures from the ASR Scorecards database, $31.03 billion in public ABS was issued in 1H11. This is a boost in comparison with the $26.41 billion recorded a year ago.

Regulation was a main focus at the recently concluded Global ABS 2011 conference held in Brussels in mid June. One of the issues was Solvency II, the proposed new European regulatory regime that, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service, is probably going to increase regulatory capital requirements for both European Union and European Economic Area insurers and reinsurers when it is implemented in 2013.

The regulatory overhaul of the housing market has taken center stage in most discussions regarding securitizations.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is ordering all national banks to conduct in-house reviews of their foreclosure management practices and prepare reports for OCC examiners.

Of the small pool of homeowners still refinancing their mortgages, a growing share are trading in lower monthly payments for the opportunity to pay down their debt faster.

This afternoon the New York Federal Reserve told dealers that it does not anticipate any further auctions of its Maiden Lane II (ML II) portfolio in the near term.

Tejas Securities Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Westech Capital Corp. hired Samir Shah as managing director and co-sales manager of structured products.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker's (TBW) former chairman and CEO Lee Farkas was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for leading a $2.9 billion fraud scheme that brought down the top-ranked nonbank lender, and its chief warehouse backer Colonial Bank.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York has approved the reorganization plan of Innkeepers USA Trust, a REIT that filed for Chapter 11 protection in July 2010.

Grant Thornton’s public finance practice has been selected as the structuring and refunding verification agent for NYS Tobacco Settlement Financing Corp.’s (TSFC) $959.1 million ABS offering, which was priced by Barclays Capital on Tuesday.

Lawyers for NCUA told a federal judge here that the federal agency's June 20 suits against JP Morgan and RBS Securities should not exonerate officers and directors of WesCorp FCU in the 2009 failure of the one-time $34 billion corporate credit union.

Mortgage rates were little changed in the week ending June 30, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

If Bank of America Corp.'s proposal to settle its MBS claims for $8.5 billion is approved as is by a court, the deal would provide the template for other banks to clean up their own MBS messes.

Two years into the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), it appears the number of borrowers able to qualify for HAMP mods has leveled off while candidates for proprietary modifications surged in the first quarter.

New notices of default at the nation's private mortgage insurers far outpaced cures in May, ending a run of three months where the opposite was the case, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America (MICA).

An ill-fated $300 billion program Congress approved in 2008 to refinance delinquent underwater borrowers into Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans will expire Sept. 30 – after providing relief to less than 600 borrowers.

Santander Consumer Bank (SCB) is marketing an auto loan ABS worth €630 million ($915 million).

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) analysts looked at the potential implications of the Bank of America settlement in a report released yesterday.

A new report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts suggested that home price appreciation (HPA) might have actually hit its double-dip bottom in March at -6.1%, earlier than what they had previously predicted in a previous report released a week earlier.

Raymond James Financial announced Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state regulators under which it will buy back about $300 million of illiquid auction-rate securities from retail customers.