Securitization

Fairholme Capital Management’s motto is “Ignore the Crowd,” and the hedge fund is sticking close to that maxim with its roughly $200 million investment in MBIA.

Moody's Investors Service has updated its global methodology on REITs as well as other commercial real estate firms.

Fannie Mae issued $40.2 billion of MBS in June, up 11% in May, but far below the $130 billion it issued in the same month a year ago during a major boom in refinancings.

European ABS looks set to enter August on a quiet note. On the primary side, there are no new public offerings in the pipeline after last week's launch and pricing of Santander's auto loan ABS deal.

The European Central Bank (ECB) raised the haircuts for repo lending including ABS assets by four percentage points to 16% from 12%. The new haircuts for ABS lending will be valid as of January 2011.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Thursday charged Citigroup with misleading investors about its exposure to subprime mortgage-related securities.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors is endorsing legislation that could help restart the securitization market for small commercial mortgages held by community banks.

The Senate Banking Committee approved the nominations of Janet Yellen, Peter Diamond and Sarah Bloom Raskin to be members of the Federal Reserve Board.

Ford Motor Credit Co.'s (FMCC) pushed ahead with its ABS deal dubbed Ford Credit Auto Owner Trust 2010-B. This was after hitting a glitch after the rating agencies withdrew their ratings because of the repeal of Section 436(G) of the Securities Act of 1933 after President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The House Financial Services Committee agreed late Wednesday to make changes to a bill to establish a covered bond market in order to address some of the concerns raised by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

Nelnet is in the market with a $378.3 million deal backed by student loans with Barclays Capital serving as lead manager.

BNY Mellon Corporate Trust has launched an eVault service that will allow it to receive, process, and store electronic mortgage documents for its clients, the firm announced today.

The City of New York is in the market with a $73.4 million deal with JPMorgan Securities serving as the lead manager.

The latest ABX remittance data showed that CDR levels increased modestly in July, as average values for each index ranged from flat to up 1.4 points, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.

The Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC) said today that it will open up a public comment period on the new rules presented under the Dodd-Frank Reform Bill. This will before the official comment periods have started.

PHH Corp. has named Smriti Laxman Popenoe as executive vice president and chief risk officer effective Sep. 13. Popenoe will be responsible for the design and implementation of an enterprise-wide risk framework and will work with the firm’s business units to identify, effectively manage and mitigate credit, market and operational risks.

Fannie Mae has provided $5.9 billion in investment to the multifamily rental housing market in 1H10.

Several significant initiatives have helped to increase transparency in the global structured finance market, making it possible for rating agencies to assign credit ratings to structured finance issues without the cooperation of the relevant issuer or arranger, according to Fitch Ratings.

Three major trade associations have announced support for H.R. 5823, a bill seeking to establish a covered bond market in the U.S. that is currently being debated by the House Financial Services Committee.

Credit card issuers have dropped many policies that lawmakers deemed unfair and barred under the CARD Act, but some new practices that could put consumers at risk are increasing, according to a report from the Pew Health Group's Safe Credit Cards Project.