Securitization

Colony Capital LLC is one of the winning bidders on a Fannie Mae REO sale sponsored by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), according to bidders and other sources familiar with the matter.

Freddie Mac reported more new record lows for 30- and 15-year fixed mortgage rates as well as 5/1 hybrid ARMs.

Homes sales and prices – along with construction activity – have improved over the past few months, but a true recovery in the housing sector is still far away due to tight mortgage credit, according to Federal Reserve monetary policy officials.

San Bernardino County is forging ahead with deliberations on a proposal to seize delinquent mortgages, despite its largest city's decision Tuesday night to seek bankruptcy.

CoreLogic and FICO this week released the FICO Mortgage Score Powered by CoreLogic. This new offering evaluates the traditional credit data from the national credit data repositories and the supplemental consumer credit data in the CoreLogic CoreScore.

More than 90 members of the House of Representatives are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to provide a legal safe harbor in the final qualified mortgage rule to protect lenders from frivolous lawsuits.

McDermott Will & Emery has hired structured finance attorney Perry Sayles to its New York office as a partner in its financial institutions advisory practice group.

CMBS data provider Trepp has partnered with BlackRock's iShares Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business to bring together the iShares Barclays CMBS Bond Fund into its CMBS analytics product, a release from Trepp said.

A true bottom has formed under house prices but that assumption could be challenged later this year as the share of distressed sales once again outpaces home sales during the fall and winter months, according to Wells Fargo.

In a conference call yesterday, John McElravey, head of consumer ABS research at Wells Fargo, said that the U.S. auto ABS sector is now the “new benchmark for the consumer ABS market” replacing the credit card sector.

Lawyers for National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) asked a federal court Tuesday to bar potentially embarrassing testimony by NCUA board members Debbie Matz and Gigi Hyland and former chief corporate examiner Kent Buckham in the civil trial over the 2009 collapse of WesCorp FCU, which is projected to cost credit unions $7 billion to resolve.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a slight 2.1% decline in mortgage application activity as a slowing in refinances was partially offset by a rise in purchases. Aiding activity as well were new lows set in mortgage rates. Results were adjusted for the Fourth of July holiday.

Lawmakers and financial market participants sparred Tuesday over the economic and other impacts of the Dodd-Frank law, as well as the resulting Volcker Rule and potential new money market fund rules.

The U.S. CMBS pipeline is seeing some activity this week including a securitization from Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.

Lenders facing legal challenges with respect to possible violations of the “ability to repay” standards in the qualified mortgage rule likely will face significant loan repurchase requests from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as rescissions in coverage by mortgage insurers, according to the Clearing House Association (CHA).

Industry observers and regulators have taken note of Wells Fargo's dominance among the titans of the mortgage market.

While testifying before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises today, American Securitization Forum (ASF) Executive Director Tom Deutsch advised policy makers to thoroughly analyze how the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act’s various rules will cause cumulative harm to the securitization market.

Information provider CoreLogic and FICO have together launched a consumer credit risk score that is expected to improve the quality of lending decisions and increase the number of mortgage loans lenders make.

The Obama administration’s refinancing programs are reaching more GSE and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) borrowers, allowing these troubled mortgagors to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates, according to a new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)/Treasury Department report.

WASHINGTON — In its first year of operation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has already proved to be one of the busiest regulators in Washington.