Securitization

Housing prices in February posted their first annual increase in more than three years, according to a new reading of the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index.

As anticipated, Senate Republicans stood together and blocked the Senate from starting debate on a game changing financial services reform bill.

Last June, as Standard & Poor's was in the process of changing their rating methodology for CMBS. After 10 months, S&P finally published a new methodology.

Collateralized debt obligations were never the main avenue for the sale of banks' trust-preferred securities. But it's on such credit-market side streets where their buyers — fellow banks, especially small ones — have gotten mugged.

As the Federal Reserve begins looking for ways to reduce its $1.1 trillion of agency MBS holdings, a group of private sector policy analysts are advancing a proposal that would finance the transfer of agency MBS back to the GSEs.

The U.K. consumer ABS transaction, Paragon Personal and Auto Finance (PPAF 3), recently passed its step-up date on April 17 without being called, resulting in a doubling of the coupons due on the notes.

The PrimeX index is scheduled to launch on April 28th, 2010 but it has already begin trading ahead of its official start date, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

U.S. Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) of Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Des Moines and New York have now been successfully using Principia Partners' Principia Structured Finance Platform (Principia SFP) for 15 years.

Issuance of Ginnie Mae MBS fell 24% to $22.8 billion in March with consumers taking a more cautious approach to the housing market.

Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2010-H1, the first securitization of recently originated jumbo loans since 2008, has been priced in the public market.

GMAC subsidiary Ally Bank is in the market with a dealer floorplan securitization. The $546.9 million transaction is lead managed by Credit Suisse.

As the private-label mortgage bond market comes back to life, REITs may play the lucrative central role that belonged to banks and Wall Street firms during securitization's precrisis heyday.

Top executives at two credit rating agencies defended themselves Friday against charges that, to retain market share, they knowingly issued inflated ratings on MBS before the financial crisis and put off making needed changes in their standards.

Information services company Experian has hired Brian Vonderhorst as director of business development and sales for Experian Capital Markets.

According to an internal memo obtained by ASR, the Americas asset securitization group (ASG) at Barclays Capital will now be co-headed by Jay Kim and Cory Wishengrad.

The servicing issues affecting the Kazakh Mortgage Backed Securities 2007-1 B.V. transaction might not be limited to emerging markets deals, Fitch Ratings said.

Specialty finance company J.G. Wentworth completed a $252 million securitization backed by structured settlement and annuity backed receivables.

Toyota Motor Credit Corp. is in the market with a $1.25 billion auto ABS deal. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, and JPMorgan Securities are the lead managers on the aut0-backed offering.

NewOak Capital appointed Carlos A.G.Vigon as managing director, commercial real estate investments and services.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has indicated that requirements for regulatory reporting of MBS and ABS trades through TRACE will become effective on February 14, 2011.