Securitization

The House Financial Services Committee Tuesday approved a bill to enhance the FHA's authority to police bad lenders after rejecting an amendment that would have reduced the agency's loan guarantees.

Higher rates pressed on refinancing activity in the week ending March 23. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the Refinance Index declined 4.6% to ~3438, its lowest level since early December.

In a departure from recent tender offers in Europe, Spain’s Bankia had a higher-than-expected take-up, according to a release by Barclays Capital analyst Dipesh Mehta.

CRE Finance Council Europe (CREFC Europe) has appointed Peter Denton as chair-elect of the group.

Freddie Mac purchased $37.6 billion of residential loans from its seller/servicers in February, a 10% increase from the prior month, and a sign perhaps that Bank of America's recent decision to quit Fannie Mae is helping Freddie.

Dallas-based Metropolitan Capital Advisors (MCA), has successfully secured a permanent financing package with a CMBS lender for the refinance of the Sunwest portfolio—a collection of 25 single and multi-tenant properties scattered across 8 states.

Prudential Financial Insurance (PFI) is marketing a new hybrid deal that according to market reports is backed by subprime residential mortgage backed securities and guaranteed by the insurer.

FirstEnergy of Ohio is said to be prepping a $500 million securitization of deferred energy costs.

Standard & Poor's said Tuesday that home prices fell in January for the fifth consecutive month, reaching a new low for the housing bust.

Investors who purchase distressed loans at a discount are among those in a good position to sense how problem assets might best be resolved, and one of these players believes more aggressive refis and mods and fewer government constraints on lending could help.

State Street Global Markets' Investor Confidence Index(ICI) for March 2012 showed that the outlook of both American and European institutional investors improved.

The CRE Finance Council Europe and Ernst & Young released a joint European commercial real estate lending tax guide.

Nomura Securities analysts said that since the start of 2012, they have seen an issuance surge in equipment ABS sector with roughly $3.7 billion issuance across five deals versus $1.65 billion issued in the first three months of last year.

It is hard to deny Richard Cordray's hiring to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) nearly four months ago is a flash point in continuing debates over regulatory appointments and implementing the Dodd-Frank Act.

Analytics provider CoreLogic has a new service to assist originators identify potential loans that can fall under the Home Affordable Refinance Program 2.0 (HARP 2.0).

Volumes for non-investment grade bonds steadily increased throughout 1Q12, with three spikes happening on Jan. 19th, Feb. 8 and 28 that coincided with the dates of the New York Federal Reserve’s Maiden Lane II sales, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

HSBC's residential lending and servicing business continues to be under what the bank calls a “strategic review,” leaving its mortgage workers in limbo.Servicing advisors say the bank has considered selling its Depew, N.Y., servicing platform and its roughly $42 billion of receivables, but hasn't liked the bids offered thus has far.

Swiss Re has done a $200 million 144A multi-peril natural catastrophe risk deal via Combine Re. This offering is the first catastrophe bond to combine the risks of two reinsured parties.

In a note released this morning, Standard & Poor's analysts said that without the potential regulatory hurdles, the conduit B-piece demand will be sufficient to support the estimated CMBS issuance this year.

New York's Suffolk County's tobacco ABS is in the market. The deal, worth $38.1 million, is called Suffolk Tobacco Asset Securitization Corp. Series 2012.