Securitization

Fitch Ratings is monitoring the potential consequences that the earthquake that hit Christchurch in February might have on outstanding Fitch-rated New Zealand mortgage-backed transactions.

It has not even been a week after news broke that Jay Kim, co-head of Barclays Capital's U.S. asset securitization team, will be moving to Credit Suisse in May to head up the bank's asset finance team, bringing with him around 10 Barclays bankers.

A CMBS called GS Mortgage Securities Corp. Trust 2011-ALF is in the market. The transaction is is backed by the beneficial interest in a three-year loan, cross-collateralized first lien mortgage secured by 29 assisted living facilities (ALFs), according to a Fitch Ratings presale report.

As home lenders fret about a forthcoming regulatory proposal on risk retention, Freddie Mac will soon require a little more skin in the game from their borrowers.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Commercial/Multifamily Delinquency Report showed that in 4Q10, commercial and multifamily mortgage delinquency rates increased slightly for CMBS loans.

Lloyds TSB Bank and the Bank of Scotland issued a £1.45 billion ($2.35 billion) CLO of project finance loans.

Lawmakers pressed Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday about whether regulators have the legal authority to include servicing standards within a risk-retention rule.

Ally Financial said late Wednesday that the U.S. Treasury will be repaid $2.7 billion from the sale of all the Trust Preferred Securities that the agency holds in the bank holding company and mortgage lender.

Fixed related mortgage rates declined for the third straight week, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization (C-BASS) founders Bruce Williams and Saul Sanders are talking to mortgage banker New Penn Financial in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., about buying the company, according to three sources familiar with the deal.

Total outstanding CMBS dipped by about $3.6 billion in the February remittance period, according to the CMBS credit handbook put out by Barclays Capital. The drivers include amortization, payoffs and liquidation.

MBIA still expects to pay more claims as the credit quality of the debt it insures erodes.

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has helped more than 500,000 struggling borrowers with a median annual income of $46,000 remain in their homes, according to the Treasury Department, which found itself defending the program this week.

The core delinquency rate for legacy CMBS in February had one of its smallest increases since the start of the credit crisis, according to the Trepp Delinquency Report.

Consumer Portfolio Services (CPS) announced its $100 million two-year warehouse credit line with UBS Real Estate Securities.

Mortgage application activity declined 6.5% in the week ending Feb. 25 with both refinancing and purchase activity lower — despite a decline in mortgage rates.

Redwood Trust on Tuesday closed its second Jumbo MBS deal within 10 months, boasting that the economics on the transaction support private-sector financing of prime mortgages at rates within 0.5% of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac instruments.

Banking regulators took a critical step forward on Tuesday to establishing national mortgage servicing standards by cutting a deal to include some new rules as part of a related risk retention proposal.

Goldman Sachs said in regulatory paperwork filed on Monday that it could lose about $3.43 billion as a result of judicial, regulatory and arbitration proceedings launched against the firm over the last decade.

The Obama administration has gained plaudits from even conservative critics by calling for the dismantling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.