Securitization

Ally Financial, which controls the nation's fifth largest mortgage banking firm, plans to go public this year and is interviewing investment bankers for its initial public offering, according to sources familiar with the plan.Two underwriters that Ally has spoken with include JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Mortgage rates were higher in the week ending Jan. 27 following higher Treasury yields that responded to stronger economic data this week, said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft.

Tight credit conditions, higher mortgage rates, and a big drop in refinancings will push residential originations below $1 trillion this year to levels not seen since 2000, according to economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

When the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced its interest last week in overhauling how servicers are paid, it didn't provide much in the way of public detail.

A new ruling from the Southern District Court of New York could have enough force to push a Michigan subprime securities lawsuit against Bear Stearns to trial, state officials said Wednesday.

Standard & Poor’s is considering whether Assured Guaranty’s credit is really 'AA-plus'. The credit-default swap market made that decision a while ago and its verdict is no.

Nelnet is in the market with a $384.4 million deal called Nelnet Student Loan Trust 2011-1. The FFELP-backed transaction is managed by Barclays Capital and RBC Capital Markets.

Consumers bought just 321,000 homes in 2010, the lowest reading in almost half a century, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday morning by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The default rates rose for each of the indices this month, which were at 15.7%, 13.5%, 14.3%, and 12.2% CDR for the 06-1 through 07-2 indices, reported Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts. This represents changes of 7.3, 3.6, 4.5, and 2.7 points, respectively.

Fitch Ratings, in a recent report, updated the “Challenge Factors” (CFs) assigned to 36 emerging market countries in 2009.

Mortgage application activity fell 12.9% in the holiday-shortened week ending Jan. 14 with both refinancings and purchases declining.

As the paintball game speeds up and all major players dodge faster to avoid designation as bearers of systemic risk, let's not get fixated on "too big to fail" as the past or future cause of the disaster.

A Canadian CMBS transaction called Institutional Mortgage Securities Canada Inc., Series 2011-1. is in the market. The eight-tranche transaction is managed by TD Securities.

Ambac Assurance Corp.’s rehabilitation plan was accepted Tuesday by a Wisconsin state court.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft hired Joseph Beach for its Charlotte office as special counsel in the capital markets department. His practice will focus on loan finance and securitization.

It may not be clear when the private-label securitized market will come back, but the developments that will likely shape it are coming into focus: the GSEs and the pending qualified residential mortgage (QRM) definition/risk retention regulation.

Fitch Ratings' ABCP credit outlook for 2011 remains stable, which is in line with the outlooks for the global financial institutions that are the liquidity and credit enhancement providers to ABCP programs.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) released its detailed agenda for its ASF 2011 conference that will be held in Orlando, Florida from Feb. 6-9.

The U.S. Treasury released details on the legacy securities public-private investment program (PPIP) capital activity.

Home prices fell another 1% in November and values are just 3.2 percentage points above their April 2009 low, a sign that a double dip recession is in store for the nation's housing stock, according to figures compiled by Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller.