2013

Here at Dechert, we have seen a slow but steady work stream over the past several years in assisting institutions in either buying or selling of pools of financial assets. Just recently, we advised Wells Fargo Bank in connection with its acquisition of a $4.5 billion performing pool of UK loans and the simultaneous financing of Lone Star’s acquisition of $1.5 billion NPL and SPL pool, all acquired from what had been Euro Hypo’s and now – Hypothekenbank Frankfurt. Needless to say, we would certainly love to see more.  Continue Reading The European Bank Loan Trade Is Not Yet Done

Out of the dimensionless emptiness of the information vacuum surrounding Dodd-Frank risk retention that enveloped us early this year, the word is now spreading, through what you might charitably describe as informal communications (leaks), that the joint regulatory committee responsible for the risk retention rules is about to re-propose something, perhaps as early as September.Continue Reading TO THE BARRICADES! (AGAIN)

If the Nevada Supreme Court affirms a lower court’s ruling that a private sale of real property by a receiver constitutes a foreclosure sale, the lending industry (e.g., lenders, special servicers and maybe borrowers) will lose the ability to seek deficiency judgments in Nevada unless the parties comply with state statutory foreclosure requirements.Continue Reading What’s in a Name?: A Private Sale by a Receiver May Amount to a Foreclosure Sale under Nevada State Law

While we here at CrunchedCredit recognize that many of our readers spend their days deep in commercial lending land, we also like to provide updates for our residential lending friends from time to time (and for our commercial lending friends who like to be able to impress their resi-friends at cocktail parties).

You may have…

A bill was recently introduced in the Senate that could result in the wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Under the bi-partisan “Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013”, recently introduced by Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Mark Warner (D-VA), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be replaced by a new agency, the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corporation (the “FMIC”), tasked with operating a Mortgage Insurance Fund to provide a limited, government-backed guarantee on qualifying, privately issued mortgaged-back securitizations.Continue Reading Dechert OnPoint: Residential Mortgage Securitization Update: GSE Reform Bill

Typically, from deal to deal, I don’t (and can’t imagine many of my colleagues do) get too worked up about Article 9 of the UCC…I know what it says, I know what to do, especially when it comes to creating and perfecting creditors’ security interests in collateral. But this year, I have reason to pause, as the 2010 Amendments to UCC Article 9, which have been adopted by more than 40 states (but not NY (and some others)—as of yet) went into effect on July 1, 2013.Continue Reading Brief Summary of Key UCC Article 9 Amendments Effective July 1, 2013

I told the Blog team that I had sworn off writing about Europe for a while; but really. The FT opinionized last week that the EU ministerial decision to agree on a standard “bail-in” to fix broken European banks was a good thing. The editorial ended with a ringing endorsement “something is, however, better than nothing.” Really? It reminds me of Wile E. Coyote bravely trying to use a handkerchief as a parachute as he falls off the butte, again. Beep, Beep.Continue Reading The Consequences of a Failed Banking Union

At last count, we now have four separate risk retention regimes (maybe five) that we need (or will soon need) to deal with as we attempt to restructure any securitization.   They are, of course, all different. And let’s be crystal clear. This isn’t an issue for the distant future. Risk retention is here now and soon, much sooner than most think, it will become a front and center issue for all of us. We’ve written about skin in the game many times in the past (e.g., here, here and here), and I’m not going to re-litigate both the intellectual unsoundness of the notion and the negative impact on capital formation, but as we await developments, I thought it would be useful to compare and contrast the four variations on the theme and sound the heads up.  It’s time for us to focus. Continue Reading Why Does Everyone Want to Make Me Keep Thinking About Risk Retention