Securitization

Standard & Poor’s Thursday affirmed its double-A ratings on bond insurers MBIA Insurance Corp. and Ambac Assurance Corp. and removed their ratings from CreditWatch negative.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley yesterday became the latest firms to reach auction-rate securities settlements with New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and other states, agreeing yesterday to buy back at par a total of $7.5 billion of the illiquid securities from retail investors and pay fines of $60 million.

Fitch Ratings said on Thursday that certain classes of notes issued across 43 CDOs backed all or in part by trust preferred securities issued by banks are on Rating Watch Negative.

The PMI Group entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Australian mortgage insurance subsidiary and related Australian holding company to QBE Insurance Group, the country's biggest international general insurance and reinsurance group.

Jones Lang LaSalle, a Chicago-based financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate, has promoted four executives in its capital markets group to managing director and senior vice president positions.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate held steady at 6.52% for the third week in a row, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

RealtyTrac reported foreclosures in July rose 8% from June to 272,171 U.S. properties.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the servicer quality ratings of SN Servicing Corp. to 'SQ3-' from 'SQ3+' as a primary servicer of subprime loans and 'SQ3' from 'SQ2-' as a special servicer.

H&R Block said its deal to sell its financial adviser unit to Ameriprise Financial would complete a restructuring of the tax preparation company, signaling that it plans to keep its thrift — for now.

Three of the largest nonprofit student loan lenders have temporarily withdrawn from lending in the federal family education loan program despite a high-profile plan by the Department of Education (DOE) designed to assist non-bank lenders in financing student loans.

Syncora Holdings said yesterday its discussions with banks to commute $52.9 billion in credit default swap exposures highlight its second phase of restructuring, its "primary objective" in the near term.

Morgan Stanley late Monday became the fourth major securities firm to propose a buy-back of auction-rate securities from retail investors, but the offer was rebuffed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Katten Muchin Rosenman has formed a covered bond team within its structured finance and securitization group.

U.K.'s Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined the Credit Suisse's U.K. operations £5.6 million ($8.35 million) for breaching FSA Principles 2 and 3.

Wachovia Corp.'s net loss in the second quarter widened to $9.11 billion after the Charlotte company increased its legal reserves by $500 million, according to a regulatory filing.

JPMorgan Chase has had losses of $1.5 billion on MBS assets so far this quarter as the U.S. housing slump deepened amid turmoil in credit markets.

BNP Paribas said on Tuesday it hired Adnan Zuberi to run its structured credit desk in New York as part of ongoing expansion of the French banking giant's credit markets business.

JPMorgan Chase has warned in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that trading conditions "have substantially deteriorated" in the third quarter, affecting spreads on MBS and loans.

Effective immediately, Fannie Mae has increased the cash incentives it will pay servicers for successfully completing workouts, such as repayment plans and making HomeSaver advances to help delinquent borrowers catch up on their payments.

CMBS and multi-family transactions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are becoming increasingly affected by the continued financial market turmoil and the worsening conditions in some countries real estate markets, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new special report.