Securitization

Ginnie Mae set a record in its issuance of MBS backed by reverse mortgages in August.

For years, issuers strove to make their credit cards "top of wallet" — the first one a consumer pulled out when making a purchase. Today, these lenders are jockeying for a different prize: whatever's left in the wallet.

In the most prominent sign yet that policymakers are creating an exit strategy for government intervention in the banking business, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) on Wednesday set in motion the end of its debt guarantee plan.

The marked decline in the U.K. residential mortgage prepayment rate over the past 18 months is unlikely to negatively impact the ratings of the RMBS issued from the 12 U.K. prime master trust programs rated by Fitch Ratings.

Dechert hired Matthew K. Kerfoot as a counsel in the financial services group. Kerfoot, who will be based at the firm's New York office, was most recently senior vice president on HSBC’s global structured fund products desk.

Riccardo Agostinelli joined Latham & Watkins as a partner in the finance department at the firm's office in Milan.

For the week ending Sept. 10, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 5.07% with an average 0.7 point, down one basis point from last week's average, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Michael Nierenberg, head of global mortgages & securitized products at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, announced that Michael J. Mazzei will join the company as managing director and head of commercial real estate debt capital markets. Based in New York, Mazzei will report to Nierenberg.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal hired Dennis M. Cariello, formerly deputy general counsel for postsecondary education and regulatory services at the U.S. Department of Education.

The Treasury Department plans to announce financial incentives for servicers to pursue short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure for troubled homeowners who do not qualify for the Obama administration's loan-modification program.

The use of knowledge qualifiers in representations and warranties by originators, sponsors and issuers of mortgage-backeds may be one of the reasons RMBS investors remain wary of the market, according to Digital Risk, Maitland, Fla.

RMBS performance is expected to continue to deteriorate into 2010 while commercial MBS woes could persist into 2010 or 2011, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Market Composite Index (MCI) increased 17% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Sept. 4, driven by a notable increase in refinance applications as rates fell.

The 45 Home Affordable Modification Program servicers are now on track to meet the Obama administration's initial goal of starting 500,000 trial modifications by Nov. 1, according to Treasury assistant secretary Michael Barr.

The CLO rally is not just explained by increased risk appetite but also by what has become a less threatening outlook for the sector than originally anticipated, Citigroup Global Markets analysts said in a report this week.

UBS has named Giacomo Petrobelli and Boris Okuliar as co-heads of the Europe, Middle East and Africa leverage capital markets group.

Markit announced plans to launch its commercial mortgage total return swap index, Markit TRX.NA, on Sept. 10.

Real Estate Econometrics today released its third quarter trends update and projections for the performance of commercial real estate mortgages held by depository institutions.

Along with the recent expansion of its platform to include trading in all MBS and ABS, Beacon Capital Markets appointed David Weisberger as co-CEO to work with senior management to further expand the platform's business.

First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corp. family of companies, enhanced its TrueStandings Securities. This is the firm's Web-based business intelligence platform that offers loan-level access to the industry-leading LoanPerformance securities database. LoanPerformance represents 96% of active non-agency securitized mortgages dating back to 1993.