Securitization

Standard & Poor's put 1,981 structured finance tranches in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) on creditwatch negative yesterday as a result of the revision of its counterparty criteria.

Refinancing activity rose for the third straight week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

South Korean cross-border issuance of ABS will be spurred along by two developments in 2011, according to a report on structured finance in ex-Japan Asia by Moody’s Investors Service. One is the maturity of several credit-card and auto loan deals this year. The other is the arrival of potential new originators among credit card businesses freshly spun off by banks.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair warned Wednesday that regulators must add new servicing standards to a pending risk retention rule to ensure there is not a double dip in the U.S. housing market.

Section 946 Dodd-Frank Act requires the Financial Stability Oversight Council's (FSOC) chairman, who is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to issue a study on the act’s risk retention requirements within 180 days of its enactment.

U.S. banks exported billions of dollars of MBS losses to their peers in Germany and elsewhere in Europe before the housing collapse. Now those overseas institutions may join the effort to put back some of the losses.

The overall economy has moved from a fragile recovery to firmer, less volatile growth, but the housing market is not expected to grow accordingly until 2012, according to the latest Fannie Mae economic outlook.

Citigroup reported single-family mortgage originations of $21.8 billion in the fourth quarter, up 17% from the prior period.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) confirmed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are exploring possible changes to mortgage servicer compensation, but said implementation is unlikely before the summer of 2012.The current model, in which servicers collect a minimum percentage of the loan balance annually, paid out of the interest stream, "decreases the flexibility necessary for optimal servicing of non-performing loans," FHFA said in a statement released Tuesday.

First Investors Financial Services is in the market with a 144A auto ABS transaction called First Investors Auto Owner Trust 2011-1 (FIAOT 2011-1).

SLM Corporation , better known Sallie Mae, has appointed Jonathan Clark executive vice president and CFO.

The secondary market for real estate loans is active despite a dearth of new origination for both the commercial and residential markets.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) will not exercise its authority under the Dodd-Frank Act to reclaim or recover assets transferred by a financial company into a securitization, said FDIC acting FDIC General Counsel, Michael Krimminger in a letter to the industry.

The Association of Mortgage Investors (AMI) is calling for the use of "specialty servicers" to modify and write down delinquent single-family loans, second mortgages, and other consumer debt.

The Treasury Department's continued silence on its pending plan for the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is fueling suspicion that the administration does not have a concrete proposal.

Some student loan ABS might experience downgrades if they do not meet proposed guidelines on operational risk outlined in a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

During the financial crisis, consumers stopped seeking adjustable-rate mortgages, which has perplexed economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The residential mortgage division of JPMorgan Chase saw its net earnings more than double to $577 million in the fourth quarter, thanks to rising loan demand and strong profit margins in residential finance.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) introduced its new CMBS Conduit Credit Monitor this month, which details delinquency rates, default and loss balances as well as severities for the fixed-rate conduit CMBS universe.

Although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are toying with the idea of changing their servicing contract with seller/servicers, Ginnie Mae is not.