Secondary markets

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the government-owned Residential Capital Corp. for possible misconduct in its loan origination and underwriting practices.

Market interest in launching REO-to-rental securitizations has increased over the past several months, driven partly by the sizable inventory of real estate owned properties.

Bank of Oklahoma hired former Fannie Mae executive Elliot Salzman as vice president in charge of correspondent lending.

Hudson City Bancorp could no longer defy the odds of interest rate risk, agreeing Monday to sell itself to M&T Bank for $3.7 billion.

Buried in the fine print of the Treasury Department’s revised bailout deal with the government-sponsored enterprises is a clause that allows Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sell up to $250 million of assets in one fell swoop without prior approval from the agency.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has finished selling the mortgage-related Maiden Lane III assets from its bailout of American International Group, generating a net gain of about $6.6 billion

Almost 30% of all refinances are shorter amortization products, up from just 5% in 2007.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings said two of its subsidiaries are soliciting consents to amend a bond indenture from 2010 on 10.875% senior notes due 2015.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced the sale of the rest of the securities in the Maiden Lane III portfolio.

Not since July 2007, before the subprime mortgage market collapsed and credit markets froze, have investors accepted relative yields as low as they are now for debt of the nation’s biggest homebuilders.

Freddie Mac reported that it purchased $32.5 billion in loans from mortgage lenders in July, down from $44.1 billion in June.

MountainView Capital Holdings this week inked a deal to buy Clayton IPS, the independent pricing service division of Clayton Holdings.

June set a record for HARP 2.0 volume at 126,000 loans, including 53,750 mortgages with loan-to-value ratios over 125%.

Gragg Advertising is working on a marketing campaign for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage.

Buyers of non-owner occupied properties need financing too.

CMG Mortgage, a national wholesale lender, said it is temporarily suspending production of HARP 2.0 loans through loan brokers because of problems associated with long turn times.

Lately, we’re hearing way too many stories about mortgage firms turning away business and temporarily scaling back loan channels because they’re too swamped with applications.

The Federal Reserve Bank is planning to sell $3.4 billion in toxic mortgage debt that it inherited four years ago when it bailed out American International Group Inc.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to issue loan buyback guidance by late September—or even earlier—that could spell relief for seller/servicers depending on how many caveats are attached to the language.

Fannie Mae is tightening its underwriting standards on adjustable rate mortgages, which accounted for just 4% of the GSE’s total loan purchases in the second quarter.