Freddie Mac is extending its streamline refinancing program to mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of 80% or less, bringing its Home Affordable Refinancing Program in line with Fannie Mae’s.

Given that the subprime auto ABS market has rebounded in the last three years, Wells Fargo believes that the new-issue volume in the sector “should easily” exceed last year’s $12.6 billion.

Mortgage application activity was essentially flat in the week ending July 27, as a decline in purchase activity offset a slight 0.8% increase to roughly 5464 on the Refinance Index - its highest level since mid-April 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Maybe housing really is back. Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday morning that its 20-city house price index rose for

Ed DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), said Tuesday that struggling borrowers whose loans are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not be allowed to wipe out part of their mortgages under a government program, defying pressure from the Obama administration and top Democratic lawmakers.

Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities were among the winning bidders for the sale of roughly $4.5 billion of additional assets from the Maiden Lane III (ML III) portfolio, the New York Federal Reserve said in a press release today.

For those in the market who believe bank lending criteria has gotten too tight, a recent survey from Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) has some good news.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is embracing residential reforms mandated by the new national servicing standards, regulatory consent orders and the Dodd-Frank Act, according to an executive at the nation’s largest servicing shop.

There were 60,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in June 2012, according to CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report for June released today.

Marathon Asset Management has appointed investment services provider BNY Mellon as trustee, collateral administrator, paying agent and calculation agent for its $356 million CLO.

Knight Capital Group hired Robert Cestari and David Simek for its institutional fixed-income sales and trading group.

Babson Capital Management has launched a middle market lending group, the Springfield, Mass.-based investment management firm said.