Secondary markets

The Senate Banking Committee, voting along party lines, approved the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt on Thursday to become director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

All tranches priced five basis points outside of guidance, with the exception of the final tranche, which priced in line with guidance.

With mortgage rates climbing in recent weeks homeowners have switched from feverishly pursuing refinancing to buying new homes.

Steven Gluckstern, who’s spent more than a year pushing local governments to seize mortgages from bond trusts to cut balances and help homeowners, is renewing attempts with backing from cities in California and Nevada.

Standard &Poor's said statements about the integrity of its ratings are "puffery" that cannot be a basis for the fraud lawsuit.

M&T Bank remains comfortable with its decision to acquire Hudson City Bancorp even though a recent rise in mortgage rates could crimp Hudson City's profits.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank’s asset purchases “are by no means on a preset course” as he sought to tamp down an increase in borrowing costs that threatens to slow the economic expansion.

Sen. Mark Warner said a Bipartisan Policy Center paper on GSE reform “influenced a lot of our thinking.”

Housing bonds turned a hefty 80% gain for the first half even as the entire municipal bond market was showing a 12% decline.

Freddie Mac plans to sell $400 million of a new type of debt tied to the risk that homeowners will fail to repay mortgages.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is proposing fixes for the housing market that regulators can make now, without waiting on lawmakers to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Opus Bank, Irvine, Calif., has realigned its operations to create a Commercial Real Estate Banking division.

History shows that a rapid rise in interest rates tends to have little correlation with home prices, according to a Fannie Mae researcher.

The refinancing share of applications for the second quarter was pegged at 75%, up from 70% in June’s forecast.

USSCO Johnstown has developed a marketing agreement with Unifirst Mortgage Corp. it says will enable members to avoid the upfront fee other mortgage providers typically charge.

Credit unions are selling increasing amounts of their record mortgage loans on the secondary market, almost all of them to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A portion of the portfolio consists of about $1.96 billion of nonperforming assets.

New Basel III provisions could impact a significant percentage of warehouse lenders.

A federal court dismissed a suit brought by NCUA against Barclays Capital for the sale of $555 million of faulty mortgage-backed securities to U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU.

Since May 1 rates have been rising, but one economist is advising credit unions not to be fooled into inaction against interest rate risk.