Securitization

Cecile Houlot joined Morgan Stanley as managing director and head of its European securitization effort within the global structured solutions group.

Originator LEAF Funding Inc. (LFI), wholly owned by LEAF Financial Corp., is in the market with a $171.4 million transaction backed primarily by a pool of secured commercial loan contracts, finance leases and fair market value leases originated by LFI.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) will soon post bi-weekly records of closed-door meetings it holds with bankers and other stakeholders regarding regulatory reform, the agency said Thursday.

Lewis Ranieri — the co-inventor of the MBS — and bond market maven Bill Gross are among a group of 12 speakers testifying next Tuesday at a Treasury forum on the future of the housing finance system, a discussion that will touch on what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

AmeriCredit priced another auto ABS wrapped by Assured Guaranty Corp. Back in late March, the auto firm priced another $200 million offering that was insured by Assured as well.

Jefferies hired John Ockerbloom as a managing director and U.S. head of real estate investment banking.

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has succeeded in limiting the supply of distressed properties to hit the market and, as a result, has helped stabilize prices. That success may be short-lived.

Though payment card volume at many merchants is still down from a year earlier, a new report from Capital Access Network showed that the decline is slowing — and that spending at high-end restaurants is even increasing.

Fixed and hybrid ARM rates set new record lows for the week ending Aug. 12, according to Freddie Mac.

KDX Ventures, a joint venture between DebtX and KEMA Advisors, will sell $234 million in multifamily and healthcare loans for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD).

Fortress Investment Group (FIG) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire nearly 80% of American International Group (AIG) subsidiary American General Finance (AGF). The transaction is set to close at the end of 2011's first quarter.

Analysts at Barclays Capital expect the additional housing-rescue measures announced today will have little-to-no impact on agency prepayments.

Despite historically low mortgage rates, mortgage application activity increased just 0.6% for the week ending Aug. 6.

Standard & Poor's is requesting feedback on a supplementary analytic that offers an estimate of the recovery level, given a default, for individual CMBS tranches under various scenarios, S&P said in a report released today.

Even as they begin dropping credit ratings as a supervisory source, regulators signaled Tuesday they are worried about abandoning their use altogether, suggesting that potential alternatives are not much of an improvement.

JPMorgan Chase acquired $3.5 billion of multifamily and commercial real estate loans from Citigroup, saying that the "highly desirable" portfolio mirrors the Chase commercial term-lending group's focus on "excellent borrowers in stable markets."

Cantor Fitzgerald and CIM Group (CIM) formed Cantor Commercial Real Estate (CCRE), a real estate financing business that will originate fixed- and floating-rate mortgages and mezzanine loans backed by diverse real estate assets located mainly in the urban areas of major U.S. markets. The newly formed firm will engage in securitizations of these loans.

The Federal Reserve will be reinvesting principal payments from agency MBS and agency debt into longer-term Treasury securities.

Wireless Capital Partners (WCP) is in the market with its first-ever term securitization backed by multiple assets and ownership interests in sites used for wireless communication equipment and other related purposes.

Ginnie Mae issued $37.8 billion in MBS in July. Meanwhile, Ginnie Mae II single-family pool issuance reached over $21.8 billion, while Ginnie Mae I single-family pools were close to $14.6 billion.