Securitization

Discover Financial Services, Riverwoods, Ill., has finally closed on its purchase of LendingTree Loans, also known as Home Loan Center, from Charlotte, N.C.-based Tree.com for a total purchase price of $46 million. An additional $10 million of the purchase price is due on the first anniversary of the purchase, subject to certain conditions.

It appears that Nationstar’s acquisition of the bankrupt Residential Capital Corp. is far from a done deal.

Global ABS 2011 – Today kicks off Information Management Network’s (IMN) Global ABS 2012 in Brussels. The conference will be held until Thursday, June 14.

A federal judge ruled in favor of two investors involved in litigation against Bank of America, offering an alternative insiders see as a self-help way to mitigate conflicts of interest between lenders and investors of asset-backed commercial paper.

Shawn Miller has parted ways with nonperforming mortgage investor Arch Bay Capital, but is now starting a new origination firm backed by the company he left.

Three new auto-related deals are adding to what already accounts for the bulk of this year's ABS issuance.

Tranches in Freddie Mac’s multifamily securitizations — known as K-deals — are more appealing investments than their comparable conduit counterparts, even in deeply uncertain macro circumstances, said Barclays analysts in the bank’s CMBS Strategy Weekly report.

MassMutual Asset Finance LLC is marketing a $705 million equipment lease securitization.

Matthew S. Feig has hopped over to Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from Cadwalder, Wickersham & Taft. He was started June 7 in the N.Y. office as special counsel in the structured finance and insurance practice groups.

Catastrophe bond issuer Long Point Re III has issued a catastrophe bond worth $250 million, according to a release from GC Securities, which structured the deal. The shop was also a joint bookrunner with Swiss Re Capital Markets. BNP Paribas and Aon Benfield Securities acted as co-managers.

Competition from jumbo loans and recent delays in key secondary market regulations are key hurdles holding back the long-awaited return of this secondary market, which is making some strides in other areas.

Fannie Mae is moving closer to launching a pilot program to dispose of some of its nonperforming residential loans, according to industry advisors familiar with the GSE’s plans.

Walker & Dunlop announced today the acquisition of CW Capital LLC . The combination will create one of the largest commercial real estate lenders in the nation.

Moody's Investors Service said in a report this week that the growing gap in performance between stronger and weaker malls requires a closer look.

Fitch Ratings said today that a substantial rise in defaults would lead to incremental losses in privately funded student loan ABS pools.

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday unanimously approved the release of a set of proposals that would raise banks' minimum capital requirement to 7%.

Mortgage investors, who have been complaining for months about the costs they will bear under the national servicing settlement, presented a list of proposed remedies at a congressional hearing Thursday.

Garett Stoffels joined BGC Partners' real estate capital markets group as senior managing director and head of equity capital markets, the company said in press release today.

If enacted by U.S. regulators as currently drafted, the Simple Supervisory Formula Approach (SSFA) would require banks to give capital risk weightings to securitizations that are sharply higher than those assessed under the longstanding ratings-based approach, according to a presentation by Brian P. Lancaster, co-head of structured transactions at RBS, and John Jordan, from the bank’s financial institutions division.

As the possibility of Greece’s exit from the Eurozone heightens, Moody’s Investors Service today announced that it downgraded the ratings of four Greek covered bond programs. The main catalyst for these downgrades was Moody’s lowering of its Greek country ceiling to ‘Caa2.’