Securitization

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.

The CMBS market paralleled broader markets last week with buyers preparing for quarter end. The spreads were roughly unchanged week-over-week as trading volume slowed, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.

Bankrupt bond insurer Ambac Financial Group had a net loss of $963 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused Wells Fargo of failing to produce documents relating to an investigation of the bank's mortgage-backed securities.The SEC filed a subpoena enforcement action in federal court on Friday, seeking to force Wells to comply with subpoenas dating back to September 2011.

The government-owned Ally Financial sold $250 million of legacy mortgages last year, using the whole loan securitization market, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A week of predominantly housing reports, no Treasury coupon auctions, and very little Federal Reserve speak was supposed to provide a respite after the sharp sell-off last week via upbeat assessments of the economy in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement.

New York-based commercial real estate (CRE) finance firm Ladder Capital Finance Holdings appointed Michael Mazzei as president.

Most big lenders are proceeding as if new capital rules will inevitably force them to shrink their mortgage servicing rights, with a notable exception: Wells Fargo.

Auto ABS performed slightly better in January versus December with net losses and delinquencies dipping and recovery rates increasing, according to Standard & Poor's.

The current buoyancy underlying the U.S. CLO market can be attributed to a number of issuance friendly factors, not the least of which is significant interest from new buyers, market participants say.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts have updated their home price model and think that home prices are currently bottoming out.

In competitive sports, being first is always the goal. But the distance between the U.S. — at the head of the pack — and the rest of the world in crafting financial reforms is becoming a major hurdle for implementing the Dodd-Frank Act.

Administration officials are trying to get the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to reconsider its resistance to principal reductions on loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told lawmakers Wednesday.

Mortgage bankers issued $28 billion of Ginnie Mae MBS in February, down 7% from the prior month, according to new figures released Thursday.The new report shows that Ginnie-approved issuers securitized $26 billion in single-family loans, and $1.3 billion in multifamily loans in February. In addition, they securitized $718 million of FHA-insured reverse mortgages, up from $654 million in January.

Redwood Trust's second Jumbo RMBS for 2012 under its Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2012-2 or SEMT 2012-2 is currently marketing. The transaction is worth $327.9 million.