Securitization

Freddie Mac is extending its streamline refinancing program to mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of 80% or less, bringing its Home Affordable Refinancing Program in line with Fannie Mae’s.

Given that the subprime auto ABS market has rebounded in the last three years, Wells Fargo believes that the new-issue volume in the sector “should easily” exceed last year’s $12.6 billion.

Maybe housing really is back. Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday morning that its 20-city house price index rose for

Ed DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), said Tuesday that struggling borrowers whose loans are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not be allowed to wipe out part of their mortgages under a government program, defying pressure from the Obama administration and top Democratic lawmakers.

Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities were among the winning bidders for the sale of roughly $4.5 billion of additional assets from the Maiden Lane III (ML III) portfolio, the New York Federal Reserve said in a press release today.

For those in the market who believe bank lending criteria has gotten too tight, a recent survey from Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) has some good news.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is embracing residential reforms mandated by the new national servicing standards, regulatory consent orders and the Dodd-Frank Act, according to an executive at the nation’s largest servicing shop.

There were 60,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in June 2012, according to CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report for June released today.

Marathon Asset Management has appointed investment services provider BNY Mellon as trustee, collateral administrator, paying agent and calculation agent for its $356 million CLO.

Knight Capital Group hired Robert Cestari and David Simek for its institutional fixed-income sales and trading group.

The securitization market kicks off this week the way it usually does nowadays — with an auto ABS transaction.

Barclays Capital analysts believe that the temporary and minor increase in prepayments from the Special Direct Consolidation program will have a limited effect on FFELP ABS bond valuations, according to the firm’s latest Consumer ABS Weekly.

In expanding its note sale pilot program, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is imposing new certification requirements on servicers that are willing to assign defaulted Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans for the upcoming sales.

Several years back Ocwen Financial was both a subprime lender and held a thrift charter—two businesses that have long since gone down the road of extinction.

Kenneth Margala has been hired as director at Cantor Commercial Real Estate (CCRE) where he will focus on loan origination.

Auto ABS net loss rates were 0.89% as of May 2012, increasing four basis points from April, Standard & Poor's said in a report released Friday. The previous month had the lowest rate since the rating agency started tracking them in 2006.

Chicago is the latest city to pass a resolution to hold hearings on whether to use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages from private investors.

More records were set as the week commenced along lower coupon MBS and 10-year Treasury note yields as a result of global growth and eurozone worries.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, a fast growing buyer of mortgages from correspondents — including Jumbos — recently inked a deal to receive a $100 million repo line from Barclays Bank .

Citigroup Global Markets analysts said in a report today that, while the Countrywide RMBS settlement may still be contested by other parties, the withdrawal of Walnut's Place entities of their separate rep and warranty lawsuit means the agreement's terms are will likely be finalized soon.