Finance

Minnesota would set aside revenue from a proposed cigarette tax increase and corporate tax changes as a backup, should gambling revenue continue to fall short of the amount needed to make payments on bonds for a new Minnesota Vikings football stadium.

Security National Financial Corp.’s residential mortgage business saw a near 30% increase in revenue in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis.

Hedge funds are piling into mortgage insurers in a bet that some of the companies worst hit by the U.S. housing crash will be among the biggest winners in the rebound.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has confirmed the appointment of Judd Gregg as CEO and also appointed Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr. as president of the association.

Chicago convention managers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel advanced plans for a new arena and makeover of Navy Pier, the city’s top tourist attraction.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Jefferies priced the $1.1 billion CMBS deal called GS Mortgage Securities Trust 2013-GCJ12.

The combination of government-sponsored enterprise platforms remains more a concept than a reality.

A large bid list of nonagency residential mortgage-backed securities in the market this week may have been the first move in a regulatory plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to divest some of its portfolio assets.

Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods believe fears about a Federal Reserve Board exit from its mortgage-backed securities holdings in the near future are overdone.

With regulatory reform, the secondary mortgage market as well as the primary one will have heightened liability when it comes to loans.

Gary Kain built American Capital Agency Corp. into the fastest-growing real estate investment trust as the Federal Reserve pushed borrowing costs to record lows.

Redwood Trust sold $424 million of bonds tied to new U.S. home loans without government backing at wider relative yields as issuance soars this year.

Most stocks in this publication’s Mortgage Industry Equity Composite lost some value during the day, with five exceptions.

Deutsche Bank AG and Nomura Holdings Inc. are urging caution as investors gorge on junk-rated commercial-mortgage bonds.

Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, urged the central bank to slow purchases of mortgage-backed securities to avoid disrupting the market.

William Lyon Homes, a builder that emerged from bankruptcy last year, fell in New York trading after raising $217.5 million in a public stock offering.

The Mortgage Bankers Association will be rolling out other risk-sharing structures over the next few weeks.

The majority of the stocks in this publication’s Mortgage Industry Equity Composite were up at the close of the business day Wednesday.

Ryland Group sold $250 million of debt in the third U.S. convertible note offering from a homebuilder this year.

Fitch Ratings has finalized its loan-level model for estimating losses on prime Canadian mortgage pools.