Securitization

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is expected to take final bids on the $23 billion AmTrust servicing portfolio next week with a sale coming by the end of September, according to investment bankers familiar with the offering.

Fitch Ratings said today that it has made changes to its global rating methodology for CDOs backed by trust preferred securities (TruPS).

Sales of single-family existing homes plummeted 27% in July from the previous month as the expiration of homebuyer tax credit sucked all the oxygen out of the market. The sales reading was the worst in 15 years.

A financial regulatory reform law that would require ABS issuers to retain at least 5% of the debt they issue is so broad that some market participants are warning the retention requirements could apply to certain municipal bond transactions.

Europe is gearing up for a revival of its RMBS sector after taking a break in August. The latest deal slated to make the rounds next month comes from Santander U.K.'s Fosse master trust structure.

Fitch Ratings stated that defaults on U.S. bank TruPS CDOs eclipsed the 14% mark on 11 new bank defaults.

The Federal Reserve could see 20% of its $1.11 trillion portfolio of agency MBS run off due to refinancings and other prepayments by July 2011, according to mortgage strategists at Credit Suisse.

While the call for the creation of a catastrophic insurance fund for MBS has been gaining ground in recent weeks, two leading Federal Reserve Board economists are poised to push the concept one step further, suggesting a backstop for all ABS.

European CMBS loan defaults have continued to increase with 10 loans that defaulted in Q210, bringing the total at the end of the quarter to 8.7%.

As part of its disposal of U.S. consumer banking businesses, HSBC Holdings is shopping HSBC Mortgage Corp. around. As with many yard sale offerings, the property's attractiveness is up for debate.

Starwood Vacation Ownership (SVO) has just priced a $280,000 deal backed by vacation ownership loans related to 17 SVO properties that are located in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Orlando, FL., and Scottsdale, Arizona, among others.

Barclays Capital analysts turned to overweight from underweight on the agency MBS basis.

A bankruptcy court approved General Growth Properties’ (GGP) disclosure statement, bringing the shopping mall owner closer to emerging from bankruptcy.

State Street Corp. made enhancements to its risk analytics and servicing tools for institutional buyers.

In 2Q10, CLO obligor concentration risk decreased slightly in outstanding Standard & Poor's-rated U.S. cash flow deals, the agency said in a recent report.

All homeowners current on their mortgages need to be refinanced into a mortgage with a 4.5% interest rate to help the economy, said Ted Jones, the chief economist at Stewart Title.

The Federal Reserve Board, the sole bank holding company regulator for decades, is about to experience a pretty new concept: a teammate.

Mayer Brown appointed Dominic Griffiths as the new head of the banking and finance group in London.

CMBS has been seeing some activity lately. For instance, Starwood Property Trust announced yesterday that it came to market with a CMBS deal that generated non-recourse match funded financing for the firm with an effective cost of funds of around 3.5%.

New industry research confirms what servicers and loss mitigation specialists have been saying in recent months: demand for short sales is going through the roof.