Securitization

It's finally April and thousands upon thousands of new home listings are hitting the market – but a key source of homebuyer financing, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program, will shut down Friday night if Congress cannot reach terms on a budget deal.

The efforts of five Wisconsin school districts to recoup their ill-fated $200 million investment in CDOs have received reinforcement in the form of possible Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) action against an investment bank for its role in the transaction.

Like a pesky cold, the loan market just can’t shake the “skin in the game” provision — a risk retention rule in the Dodd-Frank bill that would require “a securitizer” to retain 5% of the assets of a securitized vehicle.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) wants to delay a final decision that is expected this summer on revamping residential mortgage servicing fees.

Although lawmakers were ostensibly supposed to debate ways to overhaul the structure and authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a hearing Wednesday in a House Financial Services subcommittee was sidetracked by questions over whether the agency should exist at all.

Many of the nation's largest residential servicers — the subject of an intense federal audit that commenced last fall — have signed consent agreements to take corrective actions with regard to the processing of foreclosures and loan modifications, according to sources familiar with the matter.

National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) plans to hit the Street again this week with another offering of NCUA Guaranteed Notes, this time of $1.165 billion backed by RMBS held by the five failed corporate credit unions.

Fitch Ratings downgraded four senior tranches from three European CLOs of leveraged loan transactions.

Provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation that will be enforced by the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will change many mortgage servicer practices, according to a panel of compliance attorneys speaking on the closing day of the SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas.

U.S. credit card ABS chargeoffs reversed course in March, rising for the first time in six months, even as most other metrics posted further gains, according to Fitch Ratings.

Churchill Financial Group is jumping on the business development company bandwagon.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker's (TBW) former chairman and CEO Lee Farkas ordered data sent to its warehouse lender, Colonial Bank, for nonexistent mortgages in an effort to cover up growing deficits, an ex-president testified in court this week.

National servicing standards "are clearly doable" according to New York Banking superintendent Richard Neiman, but the Empire State's top regulator says a lack of cooperation between the states and federal regulators is hobbling the effort.

Increases in loan-level price adjustment fees impacted speeds on both FHLMC Gold and GNMA MBS in March.

Freddie Mac reported a one basis point increase in 30- and 15-year fixed mortgage rates to 4.87% and 4.10%, respectively, with an average 0.7 point.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Blackrock Solutions conducted the first BWIC from the Maiden Lane II (MLII) portfolio yesterday. The Fed sold RMBS with a face value of over $1.3 billion on Wednesday.

Spanish pharmaceutical company Grifols launched a $105 million private placement transaction Wednesday, with Mesirow Financial as its agent, a source familiar with the situation confirmed.

A subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee debated yesterday and is expected to vote a handful of bills this morning that would begin the phase-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which now finance a staggering 95% of the single-family mortgage market.

While saying JPMorgan Chase & Co. had enough capital already to comply with new Basel III requirements, Jamie Dimon, the bank's chairman and chief executive, said regulators had gone too far in crafting the international capital accord.

While shaken, consumers' sense of obligation to the mortgage contract remains strong, according to the results of a market survey conducted last summer on behalf of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.