Securitization

Trapped for nearly a year in limbo, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle may finally be seeing a way forward.

Swiss Re has securitized $175 million of notes backed by extreme mortality risk, which is the company's third deal in the last 12 months under its Vita Capital IV program.

Both refinancing and purchase activity rose in the week ending Oct. 22 as mortgage rates declined after rising in the previous week.

A handful of state attorneys general are taking a hard line with mortgage servicers by demanding loan modifications and principal reductions for those borrowers whose rights may have been violated by robo-signing.

An investment banking firm is warning federal regulators that a congressional mandate to stop relying on the credit ratings of Standard & Poor's and other agencies could be disruptive to the MBS market and increase capital requirements for depository institutions.

More details on the structural terms of the upcoming sizable CMBS deal from Extended Stay were revealed this week.

CIT said on Tuesday it earned 66 cents a share or $131.5 million in the second quarter, thanks to gains in its transportation finance and vendor finance businesses.

The Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program has more canceled modifications than active ones, according to a Treasury Department report released Monday.

When times are tough, consumers, increasingly, are paying their credit card bills first and worrying about the mortgage later.

JPMorgan has revised an Apollo Management-managed CLO it is marketing, according to sources.

Mortgage originations could fall dramatically next year by one-third, even as purchase-money lending increases, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said at its annual convention in Atlanta.

The robo-gate fiasco is more about faulty internal processes on the part of overwhelmed loan servicers than it is with the securitization of mortgages, a panel of key secondary market executive agreed at the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) convention in Atlanta.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair became the first regulator to publicly shoulder some of the blame for foreclosure problems at several servicers, saying the agencies should have seen it coming.

Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit offered up a scathing review Monday of Basel III, saying the new rules do nothing to reduce pro-cyclicality or to level the playing field among different countries and differently regulated financial institutions.

Independent broker-dealer Braver Stern Securities opened two new fixed-income institutional sales offices in Boston, MA and Richmond, VA.

Sales of existing homes rose 10% sequentially in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.53 million units, but were down 19% compared to the same month a year ago, according to figures compiled by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Lenders should face penalties for violating representation and warranty clauses — beyond their obligation to re-purchase the loans — according to Andrew Davidson, president of the New York firm Davidson & Co.

The head of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) delivered a strong defense of the industry Monday, saying the number of loans called into question by the recent foreclosure documentation scandal is "a very small minority" of the 2.3 million mortgages currently in foreclosure.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday banking regulators are putting together a comprehensive review of foreclosure practices at the country's largest financial institutions.

When it comes to repurchase agreements, insurers have had greater success in getting HELOC mortgages from RMBS deals repurchased, JPMorgan Securities analysts said. The success rate is as high as a 60%.