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First BanCorp., San Juan, Puerto Rico, has announced the signing of consent orders with banking regulators related to incorrect accounting for mortgage-related transactions with Doral Financial Corp. and R&G Financial Corp., both of San Juan.The orders were issued by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. First BanCorp said the orders restrict its payment of dividends and require it to review its mortgage portfolio and submit plans on maintaining capital adequacy and liquidity, among other things. The pertinent mortgage transactions were initially reported as loan purchases by Doral and R&G, but it was later determined that they should have been accounted for as secured loans because they were not true sales, First BanCorp said. Luis Beauchamp, First BanCorp's president and chief executive, said the bank is working to reduce the amount of secured loans with Doral and R&G through the use of warehousing facilities, securitizations, and sales of loan participations. Both R&G and Doral, and their Puerto Rico banking subsidiaries, recently signed similar consent orders, under which they "neither admit nor deny any unsafe and unsound banking practices."

The CBOE Futures Exchange, Chicago, has announced that it plans to launch futures contracts based on median prices in the National Association of Realtors' data on existing-home sales.The exchange said it has created, through a licensing agreement with the NAR, five new futures contracts designed to track median resale prices nationally and in the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West. "With the U.S. housing market valued at nearly $20 trillion, real estate is not only the hottest topic of conversation, it is an asset class unto itself that is arguably one of the most important segments of the U.S. economy," said William J. Brodsky, CBOE's chairman and chief executive officer. "CBOE gave careful consideration to the development of this contract to ensure that it had practical application for hedging as well as speculating, offering a chance to participate in the real estate market to a wide range of investors -- whether your outlook is regional or national, bullish or bearish." The organizations can be found online at http://www.cboe.com/CFE and http://www.realtor.org.

Capital Trust Inc., New York, has announced the closing of CT CDO IV, a $489 million collateralized debt obligation supported by commercial mortgage-backed securities and other commercial real estate debt.The finance and investment management company said the CDO consisted of approximately $484 million of secured notes and $5 million of preferred shares. The investment-grade securities, totaling $429 million, were privately placed with third-party investors, and the remaining $60 million of below-investment-grade securities and preferred shares were retained by Capital Trust. The vast majority of the sold notes, $413 million, bear interest at floating rates, the company said.

Saxon Capital Inc., a residential mortgage lender and real estate investment trust based in Glen Allen, Va., has announced that it will restate its earnings for the years 2001 through 2005 and its quarterly earnings for 2004 and the first three quarters of 2005.Saxon said the restatements are aimed at eliminating the use of hedge accounting treatment under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 133 for derivative instruments that were used to manage interest rate risk. The company said it recently re-evaluated its application of SFAS 133 and determined that it did not satisfy the hedge accounting requirements prescribed for the use of derivatives. The REIT can be found online at http://www.saxonmortgage.com.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., Washington, has reported net income of $27.3 million ($2.37 per share) for 2005, compared with $28.2 million ($2.32 per share) for 2004.For the fourth quarter, Farmer Mac's net income totaled $6.5 million ($0.57 per share), compared with $9.8 million ($0.82 per share) in the fourth quarter of 2004. "Farmer Mac's strategic diversification of its marketing focus is beginning to produce tangible results," said Henry D. Edelman, Farmer Mac's president and chief executive officer. "Fourth-quarter 2005 new business volume was $330.5 million, which accounted for 43% of the year's $771.7 million of new volume and was 280% of the $117.4 million of new volume in the corresponding quarter of 2004." The government-sponsored enterprise can be found online at http://www.farmermac.com.

Doral Financial Corp., San Juan, Puerto Rico, has announced the signing of consent orders with banking regulators that assess no monetary penalties but restrict its payment of dividends and require it to review its mortgage portfolio and submit plans on maintaining capital adequacy and liquidity.The orders -- with the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico -- arise out of Doral's Feb. 27 restatement of earnings for 2000-2004 to correct the accounting for certain mortgage loan sales and the valuation of its interest-only strips, the company said. Doral and its principal Puerto Rico banking subsidiary, Doral Bank, "neither admit nor deny any unsafe and unsound banking practices" under the terms of the consent orders, Doral said. Doral Bank FSB, Doral's New York City-based thrift, is not a party to the orders. Doral can be found online at http://www.doralfinancial.com.

Classes M9, M10, and M11 of the ARSI series 2004-PW1 Ameriquest Mortgage Securities Inc. home equity issue have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.Fitch also affirmed the ratings on 306 classes from 32 Ameriquest home equity deals. The negative actions were attributed to a deterioration in the relationship between credit enhancement and expected losses. The transaction consists of loans originated or acquired by Argent Mortgage Co. or Olympus Mortgage Co., Fitch said. Fitch can be found on the Web at http://www.fitchratings.com.

The national delinquency rate for residential mortgage loans rose to 4.70% at the end of last year, up from 4.38% a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.The delinquency rate was also up by 26 basis points since the end of the third quarter. However, the percentage of loans in the foreclosure process nationally fell 16 bps from that of the previous year, though the fourth quarter's foreclosure inventory was up 2 bps from that of the third quarter. Doug Duncan, the MBA's chief economist, said the increase is not surprising. "We have been expecting an uptick in delinquencies due to a number of factors: the seasoning of the loan portfolio, the increased shares of the portfolio that are ARMs and subprime mortgages, as well as the elevated level of energy prices and rising interest rates," Mr. Duncan said. Hurricane Katrina also had a big impact. If the effect of last year's hurricanes is eliminated from the numbers, the MBA said the national delinquency rate would have been 4.55% at the end of last year. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Four classes of Asset Backed Securities Corp. mortgage pass-through certificates have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings, and two classes have been placed on Rating Watch Negative.The downgrades were as follows: series 2002-HE1, class B, from BBB to BBB-minus; series 2002-HE2, class B, from BBB to BBB-minus; series 2002-HE3, pool 1 class I-M4, from BBB-minus to BB, and pool 2 class II-M4, from BBB-minus to BB. Classes M-3 and M-4 of series 2003-HE1 were placed on Rating Watch Negative. Fitch also removed four classes of series 2002-HE3 from Rating Watch Negative: classes I-M3 and I-M4 of pool 1 and classes II-M3 and II-M4 of pool 2. In addition, Fitch upgraded four classes and affirmed the ratings on 55 classes in 12 ABSC deals. The rating agency attributed the downgrades to a deterioration in the relationship between loss expectations and credit enhancement. The transactions consist of fixed- and adjustable-rate subprime mortgage loans on one- to four-family properties. Fitch can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

ForeclosuresMass, Framingham, Mass., has announced the launch of ForeclosuresConn, a new division that will offer Connecticut foreclosure data.The new company will obtain its data from the 15 Judicial District Courts in Connecticut's eight counties. "Until today, investors, real estate professionals, and mortgage brokers had no reliable central point of access to accurate and up-to-the-minute foreclosure information," said Jeremy Shapiro, president and co-founder of ForeclosuresMass. The new company can be found online at http://www.foreclosuresconn.com.