Capital markets

A former managing director at the New York investment banking firm Jefferies & Co. has been convicted of multiple offenses involving a scheme to defraud customers trading in residential mortgage-backed securities.

As interest rates increase, prepayment speeds are falling precipitously, extending the maturities of mortgage-backed securities, especially the guaranteed variety. This trend is likely to cause future declines in MBS values.

Former Jefferies & Co. managing director Jesse Litvak was convicted in the only criminal case against an individual in connection with a U.S. program that used bailout funds to spur investment in mortgage-backed securities.

The housing sector is increasingly a drag on consumption and job creation. The fault lies not with the market but with ill-considered regulations and bank capital rules.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to give mortgage-bond trustees evaluating a proposed $4.5 billion settlement over bad loans an extra three months to consider signing onto the deal.

A recent deal drew more than 65 buyers, addressing what initially had been a key concern about the new securities. Policymakers had originally questioned whether they would draw enough investors.

Private-label mortgage securities issuers should act now to make their industry more standardized and transparent, the senior adviser to the U.S. Treasury on housing policy said.

A jump in lender-paid policies would come at an inopportune time for the industry, which faces new regulatory requirements for such insurance, underscoring the need to educate borrowers why it is necessary.

HomeStreet plans to sell two pools of delinquent residential loans that it will continue to service.

Mortgage brokers have the strongest ties with referral sources like real estate agents. But they lack the control over closing, funding and underwriting that's critical in a home purchase transaction.

Improving housing markets continued to push down the overall delinquency rate of commercial and multifamily mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

President Obama's fiscal-year 2015 budget projects the Federal Housing Administration won't require a taxpayer subsidy this year as the agency's efforts to shore up its finances have offset losses from defaulted loans.

How federal regulators fabricated a media narrative with verbal sleights of hand.

PNC also disclosed more details about three subpoenas it received from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan related to National City Bank, the Cleveland-based subprime home lender PNC purchased in 2008.

The GSEs reported big profits for 2013 but even the companies' executives question the sustainability of those earnings.

Bruce Berkowitz, the money manager battling the U.S. government over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is calling on the boards of the mortgage-finance giants to build capital instead of turning over their profits to Treasury now that they've returned to profitability.

Capital One Financial Corp., the bank that gets more than half of its revenue from credit cards, received subpoenas and information requests from U.S. authorities investigating mortgage fraud.

First Horizon National has reached an agreement with Freddie Mac related to home loans originated and sold to the government-sponsored entity between 2000 and 2008.

Real estate mortgage investment conduit rules generally discourage non-distressed securitized loan sales, but SN Servicing says it had reasons to sell some at a loss in this 2002 scratch-and-dent deal.

A proposal to limit increases in basic allowances for housing and reduce military personnel could hurt the performance of some military housing bonds, Fitch Ratings warns.