Securitization

The House of Representatives late Tuesday voted to kill HAMP, the White House's signature loan modification program and to stop the administration from spending more TARP funds on foreclosure prevention programs.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) hired Thomas Kim as vice president of commercial regulatory policy.

Not surprisingly, mortgage application activity declined in the week ending March 25 as a result of an uptick in mortgage rates.

Taking a piecemeal approach to housing reform, House Republicans introduced a series of bills Tuesday to scale back Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Depending on who you talked to, the risk-retention proposal out Tuesday would either restore sensible standards to the lending market or result in a significant credit crunch.

Federal regulators are making it difficult for issuers of all types of MBS to escape the costs of risk retention.

Credit Suisse has filed an S-3 statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue under its Home Equity Mortgage Trust.

Smaller, thinly capitalized investors in nonperforming mortgages could face liquidity concerns in the coming months as private equity investors begin to re-examine their commitment to the business while bolting for higher returns elsewhere.

The Federal Reserve Board also proposed a rule that would require ABS sponsors to retain at least 5% of the credit risk of the assets underlying the securities.

Tom Deutsch, the executive director of the American Securitization Forum (ASF), has issued a statement in support of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) vote today to approve proposing risk retention rules jointly with other federal regulators.

Congressional demands for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to improve transparency, data accuracy, and legacy technology platforms have been backed by additional resources allocated to the effort.

Home values are falling in most major U.S. cities – except the nation's capital — and the average price in four of them are at their lowest level in 11 years, according to the newly released Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) held a press conference this morning ahead of its meeting to discuss the proposal on risk retention and the all important missing piece of the puzzle — Qualifying Residential Mortgages (QRM).

Hudson City Bancorp said Monday it has completed a "restructuring" of its balance sheet that reduced its high-cost borrowings and should allow for "increased future net interest income."

For the mortgage insurance industry the writing is on the wall: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and its regulatory brethren will not recognize the value of mortgage insurance coverage in determining a QRM.

The Federal banking regulators started leaking their mortgage risk retention rules yesterday afternoon.

One of the most important pieces of the Dodd-Frank Act is set to start falling into place Tuesday as regulators offer a plan that would establish stringent underwriting standards for most mortgages, provide limited new rules for servicers, and detail how institutions must retain some risk of loans they intend to sell to the secondary market.

Walter Investment Management Corp. on Monday agreed to buy Green Tree Servicing, St. Paul — a specialty servicer — and its parent company in a deal valued at just over $1 billion.However, the buyer is putting up very little in the way of cash. To complete the purchase, Walter Investment will issue 1.8 million shares of common stock to the seller, assume $20 million of existing Green Tree debt, and issue $765 million of new debt.

Educational Funding of the South (Edsouth) is in the market with its 2011-1 Series FFELP-backed student loan ABS deal. The offering is divided into Class A-1 and A-2 as well as Class B notes, which amount to around $1.6 billion ,according to a presale report released by Moody's Investor Service.

Although the current syndicated loan and high-yield debt markets are booming, they remain largely unavailable for “turnaround” situations and lower middle-market borrowers seeking to raise funds, according to the Financial Restructuring Quarterly Update report Morgan Joseph TriArtisan issued on Monday.