Securitization

Sales of moth-balled, private-label MBS by the Federal Reserve had little impact on market prices, according to the minutes of the Fed's monetary policy committee.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted unanimously to propose new rules and amendments for increasing credit rating transparency and improving their integrity.

Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) is in the market with its SLABS series 2011-1 worth $579 million. Fitch Ratings has assigned provisional ratings of 'AAA' to the student loan deal.

Two Harbors Investment Corp. said it is closing on a warehouse facility in partnership with Barclays Bank to aggregate loans for issuance into new Jumbo RMBS, making it the second REIT in this space since the downturn.

Refinancing activity responded to a further decline in mortgage rates, said the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The Refinance Index jumping 13.2% to ~2568 in the week ending May 13.

As home prices fall again and regulatory reforms take hold, long-simmering tensions between mortgage lenders and appraisers are flaring up anew.

CoreLogic said one of the main reasons why the real estate industry and finance markets continue to have problems is negative equity for a borrower.

Citibank (Dakota) N.A. wants to buy $4.84 billion worth of the Class A notes issued by the Citibank Credit Card Issuance Trust (CCCIT).

KeyBanc Capital Markets' (KBCM) recently hired Joseph McHale as managing director to its MBS sales and trading group, as reported on May 12 by StructuredFinanceNews.com (see link).

Any hope of a housing market recovery next year may be dashed, if state attorneys general and the major mortgage servicers can't reach a settlement by August, according to economists at Wells Fargo.

After making several securitization hires and underscoring the expansion of its securitized products origination (SPO) group, Barclays Capital has hired Jonathan Wu from JPMorgan Securities. Please see link for details of Barclays' previous hires.

Syncora Guarantee reported positive net income for the first quarter but said it faces liquidity problems that threaten its future long-term obligations.

Robert Mills, chief financial officer of Assured Guaranty, will become chief operating officer, effective June 1. He will fill the role that has been vacant since March 31, when Séan McCarthy resigned.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, the nation’s 19th largest servicer of residential loans and a top subservicer for Fannie Mae, late Monday filed registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), declaring its intention to go public.

As the government builds a new regime for writing consumer protection rules, an existing bank regulator has put a twist on enforcing them.

Thriving in home loans is a tall order these days, but executives at Discover Financial Services sought to make the case Friday why the timing is right for their purchase of Tree.com Inc.'s mortgage origination unit.

Amherst Securities Group (ASG) analysts examined five conflicts of interest between servicers and borrowers/investors in a report released yesterday.

Agency MBS overseas purchases considerably increased in March. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts noted that gross agency MBS purchases were $14.6 billion while paydowns were projected to be $10.6 billion. This results is $4 billion worth of net purchases.

The House Financial Services Committee late last week approved several bills to restructure the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and curb its powers until the agency’s first director is confirmed by the Senate.

Last week the Bank of England (BofE) signaled that it might increase interest rates in the third quarter to get a hold of inflation.