Securitization

The first recently originated private-label/Jumbo securitization to hit the market since 2008 shows a deal of this type can be issued despite today's uncertain regulatory environment, but in such an environment the kind of immediate business incentives needed to bring a full market together to do such deals are still not clear.

First American Corp. is buying Experian Information Solutions' 20% stake in First American Real Estate Solutions for $314 million.

Marathon Asset Management, New York, a hedge fund that jumped into the nonperforming mortgage market a few years back, will no longer invest in distressed whole loans, according to officials close to the situation.

The Treasury Department is threatening to deny or even claw back incentive payments to mortgage servicers that are not modifying loans, according to the administration's guidelines.

The last time the bank loan market saw a spattering of new CLOs, Twitter was just getting started and Britney Spears was still growing back all of her hair. Now, the details of four new CLOs have begun circulating, one of which will consist of new loans, a source familiar with the deal said.

A loan sales executive has departed Deutsche Bank for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Leveraged Finance News has confirmed. The move comes as both banks are adding staff in various credit market positions.

New home sales soared 26.9% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000, the largest monthly increase in 43 years, rebounding from a record low in February, the Commerce Department reported today.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch hired Jonathan Shiff as head of Americas corporate derivatives and foreign exchange, the bank said this week.

World Financial Network National Bank has registered an S-3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Unison Ground Lease Funding is in the market with two transactions backed by real estate used as wireless communication sites. The series of the deals are 2010-1 and 2010-2.

Two Harbors Investment Corp., a Minnetonka, Minn.-based REIT that invests in MBS, has priced a public offering of 11,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $8.90 per share, for gross proceeds of approximately $102.4 million.

Sales of existing homes rose moderately in March to 5.35 million units annualized as consumers rushed into purchase contracts to take advantage of expiring tax credits for first-time and move-up buyers.

Fitch Ratings announced its plan to address the implementation of an amendment to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 17g-5 providing for certain disclosures pertaining to all new structured finance credit ratings published by the rating agency.

In a final nudge on regulatory reform Thursday, President Obama urged lawmakers and bankers to put politics aside and support the legislation.

Fixed-related mortgage rates were flat to slightly lower for the week ending April 22, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Wells Fargo on Wednesday promised that it would begin modifying second mortgages under a new wrinkle in the government's Home Affordable Modification Program.

During the boom years, fraudulent property-flipping schemes bedeviled the mortgage industry. As the housing market recovers, the scourge du jour is called flopping.

Fifteen months after Assured Guaranty Corp. agreed to reinsure $13 billion of CIFG Assurance’s public finance portfolio, the process of transitioning from one insurer to the other is not completed, meaning insured bondholders could be at risk.

The unexpected closure of airspace in Europe caused by the recent volcanic ash disruption is not expected to impact ratings of aviation-related structured finance deals, Fitch Ratings said.

Ford Motor Credit sold its $1.09 billion auto loan securitization. The bookrunners on the deal were JPMorgan Securities, Morgan Stanley and RBS Securities, according to a Reuters report.