A look at stories across HousingWire’s holiday weekend desk…with more coverage to come on bigger issues: President Barack Obama, in his weekly address Saturday, highlighted the “heartening” job news ahead of Easter weekend. “Last month, for the first time in more than two years, our economy created a substantial number of jobs, instead of losing them,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks. “We have begun to reverse the devastating slide, but we have a long way to go to repair the damage from this recession, and that will continue to be my focus every single day.” Despite the administration’s latest plans to provide mortgage relief to struggling borrowers, the Treasury Department‘s new program — a voluntary refinancing option for Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured borrowers — is likely to have a limited effect on agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS), according to Barclays Capital. In the “Securitized Products Weekly” newsletter, BarCap analysts said agency MBS prepayments and new issuance should see only a “marginal effect” from the FHA refinance option and the possible principal forgiveness plan. For example, a borrower must have at least 10% of principal forgiven under the FHA short refinancing option, as well as satisfy all the FHA underwriting guidelines for the new loan. Of those that qualify, BarCap analysts expect “a fraction” to pursue the program, either due to complications from mortgage insurance and second liens, or because of risks to credit scores. “Ultimately, we expect prepayments to increase by a maximum of 2-4 CPR [constant prepayment rate],” analysts wrote. “Considering loans that satisfy FHA underwriting guidelines and that satisfy other factors, we estimate that [Ginnie Mae] issuance could increase $50-75bn, although the risks certainly lie to the downside.” The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) reported no bank closures over the weekend, a rare break from weekly failures. Last week alone, four closures cost the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund $320.3m. On Friday, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) along with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued guidance to homeowners affected by defective drywall that has been linked to cases of metal corrosion and possibly related health conditions. HUD and CPSC recommend homeowners remove potential problem drywall from their homes and replace electrical components and wiring, gas service piping, fire sprinkler systems and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. This should help eliminate both the source of the problem drywall and corrosion-damaged components that may cause safety problems in the affected homes, according to a joint press statement. “Our investigations now show a clear path forward,” said CPSC chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “We have shared with affected families that hydrogen sulfide is causing the corrosion. Based on the scientific work to date, removing the problem drywall is the best solution currently available to homeowners. Our scientific investigation now provides a strong foundation for Congress as they consider their policy options and explore relief for affected homeowners.” HUD has encouraged its FHA mortgage lenders nationwide to consider extending temporary relief to allow families experiencing problems paying their mortgages because of problem drywall, in order to allow the homeowners time to repair their homes. Late last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released details on the Maiden Lane (ML) portfolios, created to buy troubled assets including residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) from Bear Stearns and American International Group (AIG) as part of the government’s bailout of financial firms. The first ML portfolio contains 74.9bn assets, mostly interest rate swaps. The ML II portfolio contains 34.8bn assets, mostly non-agency RMBS with a combined current principal balance of $279.87m. The ML III portfolio, which was created to purchase multi-sector collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), contains nearly 56bn assets with a combined principal balance of $383.22m Deutsche Bank acquired parts of ABN AMRO‘s Netherlands-based commercial banking activities for €700m (US$947.2m). The acquisition pushes Deutsche Bank into the distinction of being the fourth-largest provider of commercial banking services in the European country. The acquisition also adds 13 commercial branches to Deutsche Bank’s operations, allowing the bank to provide credit to local businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs. “With this transaction, the Netherlands becomes a significant commercial banking market for Deutsche Bank,” said Werner Steinmueller, head of the bank’s global transaction banking. “This is a key step in Deutsche Bank’s strategy to expand its stable businesses and extend its presence with European SME and Midcap clients.” Write to Diana Golobay.