Securitization

The homeowner at the epicenter of the foreclosure documentation scandal has been granted a reprieve, at least temporarily.

HSBC Bank is now actively marketing the servicing portfolio of its mortgage division as a stand alone asset, according to investment banking officials familiar with the matter.

Bank of America Corp. and GMAC Mortgage may be restarting some foreclosures, but this does not mean their legal problems with bad documents are over.

On behalf of commercial banks, insurance companies and mortgage servicers, loan sale advisor DebtX plans to sell $1.1 billion in commercial real estate and residential loans in 10 separate transactions through early December.

RoundPoint Financial Group hired Steve Bashmakov as its new chief financial officer. Bashmakov will report directly to RoundPoint CEO Kevin Brungardt.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has hired a private law firm as it continues to review subpoenaed loan documents from banks and Wall Street firms that sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac private-label MBS.

The U.S. Treasury may have to shell out an additional $73 billion to $215 billion to keep the capital positions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from going negative, according to new loss projections released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

SNR Denton has hired Ricardo Martinez as a partner in its capital markets group. Martinez, who joins SNR Denton from Allen & Overy, will reside in the New York office.

The consumer's prolonged stressed state and seasonal pressures drove auto loan ABS losses and delinquencies higher in the most recent period, as reported by Fitch Ratings' latest auto loan ABS index results.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) expressed its support for the portion of the Dodd-Frank Act that addressed conflicts of interest in securitization in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today.

Freddie Mac reported a two-basis-point increase from record low levels in fixed-rate mortgages, while adjustable rate mortgage rates moved to new record lows. This was the first increase in five weeks.

Regulators took their first step this week toward drafting new rules that would require lenders to retain some risk before selling loans into the secondary market.

Industry veteran Tom Wind, who has headed such mortgage powerhouses as Chase Home Finance and Aurora Loan Services (ALS), has been named managing director of J.I. Kislak Mortgage, Miami Lakes, Fla.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a report yesterday on the potential effect of credit risk retention requirements on securitization.

The Brazilian Finance Ministry’s recent hike of the IOF tax on foreign investment into fixed income investments to 6% from 4% is bound to have some kind of impact on the appetite of overseas money for local securitization products. The increase comes after a 2 percentage point hike earlier this month.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) started a review of several Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage servicers during the summer, discovering what it calls "significant differences" in the way they handle defaulted borrowers in the loss mitigation process.

Issuer panelists at today's gathering called Covered Bonds — The Americas said that the sector has provided them with a good source of funding diversity.

Mortgage application activity declined in the week ending Oct. 15 as mortgage rates backed up, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) weekly report.

The housing crisis may now get as personal for bank executives as it has for individual homeowners.

The Federal Reserve Board issued a proposal Tuesday that would amend certain portions of its rules implementing the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009.