Securitization

Law firm Nixon Peabody has named veteran partner Craig Mills as head of its global finance practice, which it plans to expand, the firm said today.

Homebuilder Lennar Corp.'s subsidiary Rialto Capital completed the first closing of a real estate investment fund with initial equity commitments of around $300 million. This amount includes $75 million committed by Lennar.

Global securities and investment banking firm Jefferies hired James Fadel as a managing director and head of European structured debt capital markets in London.

The chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Shelia Bair warned that if left unchecked, rising government debt could rise to 185% of the country’s gross domestic product by 2035.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have resumed sales of foreclosed properties that were placed on hold in late September as a result of questions about improper affidavits used in the foreclosure process.

In an era of low interest rates, weak loan demand and unprecedented efforts by the Federal Reserve Board to pump liquidity into the economy, the demand for Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) advances has plummeted to a 10-year low, raising questions about the system's future as the government weighs a redesign of the housing finance sector.

Residential servicers are under siege from regulators, state attorneys general and legislators for messing up the foreclosure process.

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.