Securitization

Mortgage rates declined for the second week in a row and are near or at record lows for 2011.

Fannie Mae reported a 4.2% increase in MBS issuance for March while the other GSEs — Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae — registered month-over-month declines.

General Growth Properties (GGP) has identified 28 properties classified as “Discontinued Operations” of which 17 were previously sold or returned to the lender in its latest earnings report.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded 439 bonds in 244 RMBS transactions to "Dsf." The rating agency explained that the downgraded bonds have all incurred a principal write-down.

The price of commercial real estate loans that are securitized dropped a mere 10 basis points between February and March, showing signs of stabilization in the market, an expert said.

Rising energy and food prices continue to stress the consumer's ability to spend disposable income and can derail the economy if things get much worse, according to James Frischling, president at NewOak Capital.

KAR Auction Services said that its subsidiaries Automotive Finance Corp. (AFC) and AFC Funding Corp. have entered into the fourth securitization agreement with BMO Capital Markets Corp., Deutsche Bank , and Barclays Bank.

Student loan defaults have improved dramatically since peaking in 2009, according to Moody’s Investors Service's private student loan indices.

Drive-in restaurant chain Sonic Corp. said that certain of its subsidiaries are going to refinance their outstanding securitization debt with a new securitization debt facility. The underwriter on the transaction is Barclays Capital.

The National Credit Union Administration is in the market with NCUA Guaranteed Notes Trust 2011-R6.

Turkey’s DenizBank has issued €300 million of bonds backed by diversified payment rights (DPRs) through five series of notes via WestLB. The transaction was a club deal, going to multilaterals the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Finance Corp. (IFC) and the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG). The arranger itself took a piece as well.

CMG Mortgage has hired Todd Hempstead, a Fannie Mae veteran of 25 years, to work with private investors interested in buying and securitizing conforming and Jumbo mortgages.

Mortgage application activity dropped 5.6% in the week ending April 22 despite a decline in mortgage rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). However, the number was not adjusted for the Good Friday holiday.

When global regulators last year announced final international capital and liquidity standards, bankers for the first time in months breathed a sigh of relief, appearing even to welcome the agreement.

Blackstone Group obtained an $800 million loan from JPMorgan Chase to refinance debt backed by 13 hotels, according to a Bloomberg report. The debt is expected to be restructured as a CMBS, the report said.

A study sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) showed that despite evidence that some home pre-purchase education and foreclosure prevention programs are effective, inconsistent proof of the effect of counseling indicates the industry remains clueless about what works and what does not work.

The conversion of owner-occupied single-family homes into renter-occupied homes has played in important role in stabilizing housing markets that has been wracked by foreclosures, according to a report on rental housing released Tuesday morning.

House prices fell 1.1% in February following a 1.1% decline in January, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city house price index.

Loss severities dropped across all the indices by 1.0, 1.7, 4.9, and 3.2 points to 82.4%, 83.4%, 87.5%, and 90.5% for the 06-1 through 07-2 indices, respectively, as reported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.

Velocity Commercial Capital (VCC) is in the market Velocity Commercial Capital Loan Trust 2011-1. The single-tranched, $62.2 million transaction, which is managed by UBS, is a collateralized by small balance commercial loans sponsored by VCC.