Securitization

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.

Today the Federal Reserve Bank of New York bought $3.609 billion in Treasury debt maturing from 2016 to 2020, published reports said.

The average 30-year fixed rate during the week ending Aug. 19 once again dropped to another low as it has continued to fall at a pace that could theoretically benefit even borrowers who got loans relatively recently.

Structured settlement ABS have certain inherent risks setting them apart from other structured finance assets, according to a report from Standard & Poor's updating its criteria for the sector.

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland have weighed in on the long-running debate over whether to let bankruptcy judges modify home mortgages, saying evidence suggests the strategy helped stem farm foreclosures in the 1980s.

After the mortgage securitization market shut down and the Treasury Department put the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship in 2008, the Treasury issued a white paper suggesting covered bonds as an alternative. The administration and Congress are currently working on enabling legislation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is conducting an insider trading investigation of General Growth Partners (GGP). The bankrupt shopping mall owner also disclosed that it is receiving equity investment from The Blackstone Group.

SMART Servicing, an affiliate of Steel Mountain Capital Management, is offering new software that provides the residential mortgage loan market with loan level information designed to help users control loss severity.

In 1H10, the trend of strong returns for insurance-linked securities (ILS) continued, according to the first edition of Swiss Re's update on the ILS market for August 2010.

The Federal Reserve purchased around $2.5 billion of Treasurys in its first outright purchase of U.S. government debt since October, according to published reports. The Fed's aim was to prevent money from leaving the financial system.

Sallie Mae is in the market with a FFELP-backed student loan ABS with Bank of America Merrill Lynch serving as lead manager. RBS Securities is co-manager on the $760.4 million offering.

Even with reports of JPMorgan Chase planning to sell $1 billion of CMBS — the biggest deal this year — issuance in the sector is still far below 2007 levels.

Although there were sharp disagreements at a Treasury Department conference Tuesday about what kind of role the government should take in the future of housing finance, one idea in particular seems to be gaining momentum: creating an insurance fund to back MBS.

Refinancing activity jumped in the week ending Aug. 13 in response to historically attractive mortgage rate levels.