Securitization

While mortgage rates declined to their lowest levels in the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) survey history for the week ending April 20, refinancing activity did not see a corresponding increase.

The Supreme Court of the State of New York held a hearing on the $8.5 billion Countrywide Financial Corp. settlement case this afternoon.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York set a Thursday deadline for all bids on the MAX CDO holdings of its Maiden Lane III portfolio.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged credit rating agency Egan-Jones Ratings Co. (EJR) and its owner and president Sean Egan for material misrepresentations and omissions in their July 2008 application to register as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) for ABS and government securities issuers.

Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday morning that home prices fell in February for the sixth consecutive month to the lowest level since 2002.

Fitch Ratings today released a report looking at the global exposure to refinancing risk in the structured finance and covered bonds markets.

The past is coming back to haunt former Fannie Mae chief executive James A. Johnson.

A $20 billion package of residential mortgage servicing rights being offered by Bank of America has yet to trade even though the bidding ended about two weeks ago, according to investment bankers familiar with the deal.

Don Curtis, vice president of business development for Carrrington Mortgage Services, Santa Ana, Calif., has left the company.

Price guidance a new $414 million CLO to be managed by Sankaty Advisors has emerged in line with other recent transactions, according to two people familiar with the deal.

Bearish technicals around the Federal Reserve's potential asset sales out of its Maiden Lane III portfolio are still weighing on the CMBS market, according to JPMorgan Securities analysts in their most recent weekly report.

Sterling covered bond volume has been quite high beginning in 2012. Public placement volumes are already more than the levels seen in any previous year, Moody's Investors Service said in a new special comment published today.

Securitization in non-traditional ABS asset classes will increase this year, according to a Standard & Poor's report emailed this morning.

The mortgage industry will be saddled with high legal costs if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) provides a low bar for attorneys to challenge a lender’s adherence to the bureau’s “ability to repay” underwriting standards, according to the Consumer Mortgage Coalition (CMC),which represents some of the nation’s largest banks.

Enterprise Fleet Management (EFM) is in the market with a $497 million transaction rated by Moody's Investor Service and Standard & Poor's.

Raj Date, the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), said the agency wants to avoid creating "disincentives" for mortgage lenders and banks as part of the qualified mortgage (QM) rule.Date also assured consumer and civil rights groups that access to credit is a "priority" for the agency and there will be "real consequences" for mortgage lenders that do not properly assess a borrower's ability to repay a loan.

Whole Loan Capital (WLC), New York, is in the market with a $4.8 billion 'flow' servicing deal that will be sourced through a handful of different lenders.

On Friday a judge decided that a case seeking to reverse bond insurer MBIA’s 2009 transformation into two companies will go to trial on May 14.

This week was one of those rare ones so far this year that had no market roiling headlines, and it made for rather monotonous trading for the most part.

CMBX coupons have dipped an average of five basis pointss across the index, according to Royal Bank of Scotland analysts. This is given that shortfalls and losses rose higher in the capital structure.