Securitization

Lender Processing Services (LPS), Jacksonville, Fla., reported that by the end of October 2010 the total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate reached 3.92%, marking an all time high in the size of the inventory — which now equals 7.4 times the historical averages and continues to rise.

Mortgage application activity rose 2.1% in the week ending Nov. 19, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Freddie Mac reported further increases — albeit slight — in fixed related mortgage rates for the week ending Nov. 24 as 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.40% with an average 0.8 point, up one basis point from last week.

Issuance in the CLO market picked up in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, with Guggenheim Investment Management, Apollo Global Management, GSO/Blackstone Debt Funds Management and Lyon Capital Management pricing CLOs totaling $1.7 billion.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a temporary order yesterday allowing foreign ABS issuers to sell ABS to foreign investors without complying with the SEC’s new rule 17g-5.

Chase USA filed an S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue under its Chase Issuance Trust program.

Fannie Mae issued nearly $70 billion in MBS in October — its highest since the 2009 refinancing boom fueled by Federal Reserve purchases of agency MBS.

Greg Ousley wants to be a chaperone of sorts for the secondary mortgage market. The chief executive of Global Debt Registry said his company's system, which was designed to track ownership of delinquent credit card debts, can improve upon the widely used Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS).

Mortgage bankers issued $35.5 billion of Ginnie Mae-backed MBS in October, a 5% jump from September.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) reiterated its support for retention requirements tailored to each major asset class and that offer flexibility for the long term, the trade group said in a release today.

Freddie Mac's retained portfolio declined an annualized 12.5% or $7.4 billion in October to $702.9 billion.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is exploring legal remedies against firms that sold faulty MBS that later played a key role in the failure of a handful of corporate credit unions (CUs).

Starting Dec. 1, Freddie Mac will issue Jumbo/Super Conforming Pools under these three prefixes: T4: 15-Year Jumbo/Super Conforming Pools; T5: 20-Year Jumbo/Super Conforming Pools and T6: 30-Year Jumbo/Super Conforming Pools.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the GSE regulators are reminding lenders that the maximum mortgage amount for conforming mortgages will remain unchanged for the first nine months of 2011.

Last Friday, CNH Capital America filed an S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue a potential six-tranche securitization backed by agricultural or construction equipment loans under its program called CNH Equipment Trust.

In the latest Amherst Mortgage Insight, Amherst Securities Group's Senior Managing Director in charge of research Laurie Goodman said that forecasting cash flows from month to month has become increasingly difficult.

Fannie Mae is auctioning off a $30 million pool of bulk real estate-owned properties, according to investors who have viewed the offering circular.

A voluntary merger among some of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks may become a possibility now that the GSE regulator is trying to lay out a formal merger approval process.

Ambac Assurance Corp. is close to reaching a settlement that would wipe away more than $500 million of exposure to revenue bonds issued by the Nevada Department of Business and Industry for the Las Vegas Monorail, according to its regulator Thursday.

The split in the commercial real estate (CRE) market continues to widen, with historically high prices being paid for institutional properties in top markets, while other markets have little or no activity except for distressed property sales, according to the third quarter activity report from the CCIM Institute and the Real Estate Research Corp. (RERC).