Securitization

The labor department report on employment figures may show some encouraging signs of recovery.

Wells Fargo, in a new public filing, hiked its estimate for potential losses stemming from foreclosure-related litigation against the bank.

The big question on everyone’s mind at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference in New York held this week was, when will we see a thriving nonconforming secondary again?

Bank of America Corp.'s mortgage put-back deals last year no longer appear to be the kitchen-sink arrangements they may have initially seemed, and a new settlement in the first quarter spurred anticipation of further concessions.

After boosting its securitized products origination group just last week, Barclays Capital has hired more personnel for its ABS operations.

The nation’s four largest residential servicers – with the exception of Wells Fargo – took large writedowns on the asset value of their residential servicing portfolios in the first quarter, according to an analysis done by ASR sister publication National Mortgage News (NMN).

Calling the foreclosure process "fragmented," the Government Accountability Office (GAO)recommended that banking regulators and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) develop plans for regulating mortgage servicers that would include standardizing foreclosure practices.

Fitch Ratings issued unsolicited market commentary on American Home Mortgage's servicing advance deal that is currently in the market called AH Mortgage Servicer Advance Revolving Trust 2001-1 (AHM SART 2011-1).

Prepayments slowed more than projected in April as a result of higher credit fees and a lower number of collection days.

Credit Suisse has hired Roger Lehman as managing director and head of CMBS research.

Space Coast Credit Union, which filed suit last week against Barclays Capital over CDOs the investment bank sold to Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, is expected to file similar suits over the next few weeks against other Wall Street firms in the 2009 failure of the one-time $2.4 billion credit union.

Annaly Capital Management, one of the nation’s largest mortgage investing REITs, earned just shy of $700 million in the first quarter, double what it earned in the same period a year earlier.

Despite what CEO S.A. Ibrahim described as the stagnant housing market affecting his company's mortgage insurance business, Radian Group reported a 1Q11 net profit of $103 million. This profit was driven by $319 million of fair market gains on derivatives.

The PMI Group, Walnut Creek, Calif., lost $127 million in 1Q11, as its U.S. mortgage insurance business had a net loss of $137 million for the period due to continued high losses and loss adjustment expenses and lower premiums earned.

Matthew Yoon has joined the financial services regulatory group of DLA Piper’s government affairs practice as a partner in New York, the law firm announced Thursday. Yoon arrives from SNR Denton and previously Thacher Proffitt & Wood.

The recent rally brought on by weaker than expected economic news pushed 30-year fixed mortgage rates to match its year-to-date lows, while 15-year fixed, 5/1 hybrid ARMs and one-year ARMs all set new lows for 2011.

The city of Los Angeles filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against Deutsche Bank, claiming the German bank failed to maintain foreclosed properties and illegally evicted hundreds of low-income renters.

CMBS information provider Trepp released its April 2011 U.S. CMBS Delinquency Report.

Several portfolio metrics showed that the U.S. credit market is stabilizing and is even growing, according to Equifax's monthly National Credit Trends Report for March 2011.

Secondary and primary market representatives at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s secondary market conference Wednesday morning said their concerns about governmental changes like GSE reform and Dodd-Frank largely center on their potential to tighten mortgage credit availability and exacerbate a still-struggling housing market.