Secondary markets

In an effort to elevate tourism as an economic tool, Virginia has named the first project to benefit from its new tourism-related financing program.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the average profit per loan originated in the first quarter was $1,654, up from $1,093 in the fourth quarter.

The members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America wrote $8.7 billion in primary new insurance during May, compared with $7.1 billion in April and $3.9 billion for May 2011.

An independent government watchdog has a sharp message for the federal agency that must decide whether to allow principal reductions on hundreds of thousands of government-backed mortgages: Time's wasting.

One of two WesCorp executives still fighting NCUA civil charges over the 2009 collapse of the corporate credit union giant has called for testimony from senior NCUA executives.

Brian Vieaux has joined Flagstar Bank as senior vice president and head of its home lending division.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded seven classes from six different Home Equity Conversion Mortgage securitizations.

Interest rates for the 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgage matched their all-time lows as the 30-year FRM was unchanged from last week's 3.66%, while the 15-year FRM fell one basis point to 2.94%.

After shunning homebuilders for the last five years, investment capital is starting to find its way back into the new home market.

A new service from CoreLogic incorporates servicer stop advance data into its private-label residential mortgage-backed securities dataset.

Analysts at Fitch Ratings have returned Old Republic International Corp. to Ratings Watch Negative status following the cancellation of the spinoff of the mortgage insurance business into a separate entity.

The Federal Housing Administration's increase in mortgage insurance premiums for streamline refinancings dragged down the amount of government loan applications and in turn total loan applications for the week ended June 22.

The continued uncertainty and regulatory delays surrounding key mortgage rules mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act are keeping potential issuers of private-label MBS on the sidelines.

A federal appeals court has denied Republic Bancorp's bid to recover $14 million it lost on securities investments because it believes the company should have been aware of the risks it was taking.

Dodd-Frank and regulations like the Volcker Rule are so complex that even regulators can't figure them out, according to Tim Ryan, president and CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

A judge in New York approved a $40 million settlement in an MBS class-action lawsuit against individuals formerly affiliated with now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holding.

Freddie Mac purchased $30.7 billion in residential mortgages from lenders in May, up 19% from April.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston is teaming up bank employees with student volunteers from Bike & Build, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to construct affordable housing across the nation through cross-country bicycle trips that benefit affordable housing developers.

Ratings agency presale reports came out last week on the latest deal from Sequoia/Redwood, the only consistent issuer/aggregator of nonagency/jumbo securitizations.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., is giving up nearly 20% of its ownership to venture into the greater Washington, D.C., market.