Securitization

In a short note released this morning, Standard & Poor's analysts said that benchmark European covered bond issuance was €12.5 billion in May, up from €6.6 billion in April.

Bank of America (BofA) over the past two weeks has unloaded roughly $12.4 billion of legacy mortgage servicing rights, selling most of it to Nationstar Mortgage, Lewisville, Texas.

The mounting pipeline of summer CMBS deals are likely to price wide across the capital structure as investors react to macro-economic uncertainty, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said in a CMBS securitization report this week.

The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) approved 35 issuer licenses last year and hopes to approve about the same this year, according to agency president Ted Tozer.

Home prices – including distressed sales – increased in April for the second consecutive month (by 2.2%), the first time this has happened in almost two years, according to new figures compiled by CoreLogic.

Greece's RMBS sector would be one of the victims of the country's exit from the eurozone, which appears increasingly likely in the run-up to June 17 elections between parties supporting and opposing austerity measures, a condition of the country's bailout.

A federal judge Friday agreed to consolidate two suits National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has brought against Wall Street banks for their sale of faulty RMBS that went bad and helped cause the failure of U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and WesCorp Federal Credit Union, the two biggest of five corporate credit union failures.

Foreclosure sales have been declining for more than a year, while short sales have been gaining ground, according to a CoreLogic economist.

BlackRock has launched its global real estate securities capability, which is an investment platform born from BlackRock's experience in the real estate investment business.

Issuance of collateralized loan obligations, which had been running well ahead of last year’s levels, now appears to be on hold until credit markets stabilize, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

European issuers of covered bonds have sought to diversify their investor bases in recent years as European investors approach their limits in those securities, and new regulations such as Solvency II and Basel III favor issuance of covered bonds over ABS.

Treasury Department officials are working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on ways to structure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS, allowing private investors to share in some of the credit risk on government-guaranteed securities.

Capacity constraints in the mortgage banking industry have been holding down prepayment speeds despite the pickup in HARP refinancings in the first quarter, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Standard & Poor's today issued two Request for Comment (RFC) articles on its proposed changes to its CMBS criteria.

It was a record breaking week in terms of the 10-year note yield, lower coupon MBS prices and mortgage rates.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) "underestimated" the risk of poor foreclosure practices at national banks and did not devote enough examination resources to identify those problems, according to the agency's chief watchdog.

Manager Activity: Autos Book Runner Amount (US$ Mil) Rank Mkt.

Although mortgage underwriting standards were much too loose during the “go-go” years of 2004 to 2007, the pendulum on credit standards has swung too far the other way, according to a new report from Amherst Securities Group.

Is Ginnie Mae actually making progress in clearing its backlog of issuer applications? Answer: It all depends on who you ask.