Securitization

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has sent letters to former executives of the failed Washington Mutual Bank, Seattle, warning of possible legal action, according to a report by Dow Jones, quoting a source familiar with the situation.

Federal prosecutors have ended their criminal investigation of former Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo, after deciding that his actions managing the nation's largest lender did not constitute criminal behavior, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.

The White House may want to pull the plug on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but it plans on keeping the Federal Home Loan Bank System (FHLB) alive, albeit at reduced capacity.

Fast-food-chain operator Church's Chicken is paying 6% on its $220 million in bonds backed by franchise fees and store revenue, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Wells Fargo priced their $1.3 billion CMBS this week. The transaction's triple-A, A4 tranche priced tighter than the first two deals that kick-started CMBS issuance.

Borders Bookstores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts noted several weeks ago that this was expected and, at the time, they did a preliminary CMBS tenant exposure report. Their initial list used the tenant information available and trustee reports, which are typically limited to the top three tenants.

The Treasury Department has tapped a former Wall Street managing director to be in charge of the research, markets and regulation arm of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Redwood Trust has priced its newest publicly placed prime RMBS deal, Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2011-1.

The municipal bond insurance industry would still be thriving today if big banks hadn’t defrauded the insurers.

Discover Financial Services wants to get into mortgage origination, an executive for the credit card company said Thursday.

Jay Hohman is a leaving StormHarbour Partners where he was director with the primary responsibility for the sale of fixed-income products to institutional investors.

In the past few years the market has seen a considerable minority of borrowers who are behind on their 1st mortgage continue to pay their 2nd mortgage, according to Amherst Securities Group (ASG) analysts.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 8.22% of all loans outstanding as of the end of 4Q10. This amounts to a 91 basis point decrease from 3Q10, and a 125 basis point drop from a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) National Delinquency Survey.

Congress never intended federal regulators to set high down payment requirements on 'qualified residential mortgages' (QRM), according to three senators who wrote the original QRM language.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform late Wednesday issued a subpoena, asking Bank of America to hand over all documents related to Countrywide Financial's 'Friends of Angelo' (FoA) program by March 7.

Wells Fargo has dramatically lowered credit score requirements for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages, the first major lender to do so following pressure from the agency and housing advocates.

Fixed related mortgage rates eased off their recent highs for the week ending Feb. 17. According to Freddie Mac, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 5.0%, down five basis points, with a 0.7 average point.

The National Information Center has just released 4Q10 consolidated financial statements for bank holding companies.

BNP Paribas is sole lead on a cross-border local-currency denominated transaction that securitizes the rights to receive future payments from Peruvian state-owned water utility SEDAPAL, according to market sources. A BNP official did not return a request for comment.

Federal regulators and state Attorneys General may be close to a settlement with several major mortgage servicers over foreclosure processing violations, according to Federal Housing Commissioner David Stevens.