Securitization

The Obama administration's regulatory reform plan would for the first time officially define a "big" bank as those with more than $10 billion in assets — and force them to pay more for their supervision as a result.

The mortgage banking firm Taylor, Bean and Whitaker (TBW), which recently ceased making mortgages, originated an estimated $22 billion in Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans over the past 24 months, which represents 4.5% of the FHA's total business during that period.

The increasing number of borrowers "underwater" on their U.S. prime credit mortgages appears to be behind a decrease in private-label securitized loans' delinquency cure rates, according to Fitch Ratings.

It was no secret that the Obama administration was gunning for strict regulation of the previously unbridled over-the-counter derivatives markets.

Bingham McCutchen hired Michael Glazer as a partner in the Los Angeles office. The new hire joins the firm's investment management practice group and financial services practice area from Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.

Spanish lender Banco Santander SA announced today that it would buy back €16.5 billion ($23.6 billion) of its fixed-rate securities at a discounted rate.

As part of the three currently proposed amendments to the European Union’s (EU) capital requirement directive (CRD), one change specifically deals with changes to resecuritizations transactions.

A class action lawsuit was filed against JPMorgan Chase Bank and Washington Mutual Bank (WAMU) alleging that the banks fraudulently and illegally reduced credit limits on HELOCs across the U.S.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) officials expect to insure over two million single-family loans in fiscal year 2009, which ends September 30, and 2.25 million in full year 2010.

Investors requested $2.28 billion in loans under the latest subscription deadline for the Federal Reserve’s legacy CMBS Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF), expanding from the muted $668.9 million in bids during the first round of financing on July 16.

The new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) commissioner said the suspension of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker should send a clear message to the mortgage industry that FHA will not do business with lenders that don't play by the rules.

Morgan Stanley will hire up to 400 sales and trading executives after cutting too much during the credit bust, according to the Wall Street Journal. The New York-based investment bank is in a quest to build out its fixed income group, in addition to others.

CLO managers are starting to see the positive side affects of the recent rally in the leveraged loan market, as various CLO fundamentals improve. A somewhat surprising phenomenon, considering the market continues to face rising defaults and a still sluggish economy.

Existing home sales increased 7.2% in July to a seasonally adjusted 5.24 million-unit rate, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced this morning. This was the first time in five years that sales rose four straight months.

Ambac Financial Services faces an uphill battle in convincing a court that the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) shorted it by $50 million on swap termination payments, securities lawyers and swap advisers said this week.

Fitch Ratings has published its criteria for rating resecuritizations of U.S. RMBS. The rating agency uses this criteria for analyzing new issue securities backed by individual or

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analysts said that, as expected the Advanta Business Card Master Trust experienced a considerable dip in its net default rate (from 60.81% in June to 23.68% in July).

Although delinquencies for residential properties continued to climb in the second quarter of 2009, the rate of new foreclosures started was essentially unchanged from last quarter's record high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) national delinquency survey.

Jefferies has hired a former Merrill Lynch managing director to run its European credit sales and trading business, the firm said today.

Standard & Poor's is requesting feedback on a potential new product that provides market participants with a tool to analyze projected recoveries on structured finance securities.