Secondary markets

Senate majority leader Harry Reid would like to call for a vote this week to confirm Rep. Mel Watt to be the new GSE regulator, but it looks like a vote will be put off until September when the senators return from their August recess.

Rising rates do have an impact on most commercial real estate lending.

Carrington Mortgage Services has begun offering USDA loans through its retail and wholesale lending operations.

Fitch's second-quarter U.S. CMBS cumulative default rate for fixed-rate CMBS increased 10 basis points from 2Q 2012 to 13.7%.

Realogy Holdings will seek to negotiate a lower interest rate on its most senior debt obligations next year.

WSFS Financial Corp. has agreed to buy the mortgage banking company Array Financial Group in Haverford, Pa.

Rivals of MB Financial and Taylor Capital have been hit with questions about how the all-Chicago deal will remake the local banking landscape.

Rising house prices and relatively low interest rates helped improve the outlook for the riskiest tranches of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Williams served as managing director in the public policy division at Credit Suisse before launching The Williams Group earlier this year.

The conspirators supposedly operated a fraudulent timeshare resale scheme in Green Bay that resulted in at least 1,000 victims in 20 states and Canada being defrauded of over $2.3 million.

A scenario posted on the Mortgage Grapevine is looking for an owner-occupied, full-documentation refinance mortgage on a single-family property.

Better housing trends in many areas will improve legacy residential mortgage-backed securities performance, but could hurt loan quality in new deals.

New York City Comptroller John Liu called on the New York City Housing Authority to reject a plan to raise $750 million in a new bond issue.

Freddie Mac board member Linda Bammann is stepping down after serving on the GSE’s board of directors for nearly five years.

Norcom Mortgage is launching a mini-correspondent channel this month.

UBS agreed to pay $885 million to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to settle claims that it improperly sold them mortgage-backed securities during the housing bubble.

Freddie Mac may seek credit ratings in the next offering of the firm’s new securities sharing its mortgage-default risks with investors.

Recent increases in Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance premiums are giving a much needed shot in the arm to the private mortgage insurance industry.

Mortgage purchases by Freddie Mac rebounded in June but the share of refinancings dropped below 70% for the first time since December.

Discover Financial Services in the next few months plans to enter the home equity lending business.