Wells Fargo [stock WFC][/stock] will pay $6.5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims it improperly sold commercial paper to investors backed by...

The ongoing Ocala Funding litigation is presenting more than a few interesting tests to boom-time securitization agreements.The latest, based on a federal ruling in a Manhattan...

"And I promise to every Floridian that you will all be RICH!! Because we're gonna print some more money! Why didn't anybody ever think of this before??!!" -- Nathan Explosion, Metalocalypse In this episode for the Adult Swim animated series, the front man of Dethklok -- an unrealistically high-earning metal band described as the "world's seventh largest economy" -- feels as newly-elected governor of Florida that his quantitative easing approach to a slumping economy will deliver huge results.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is planning to buy up newly issued loans and package them into bonds. A posting at Bloomberg has the scoop today. The conduit arm of PennyMac would buy the mortgage loans as short-term investments. It sounds promising in terms of short-term funding, but the question remains whether this conduit vehicle will last: Has the industry already forgotten the short-lived MLEC dreams?

The misfortunes of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. (TBW) and its warehouse lender Colonial Bank dragged Ocala Funding's asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) program into the "vortex" of financial woes, according to commentary Monday by Moody's Investors Service.

Activity in the asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market is showing a rise in activity, according to traders of the short-term debt product. The data comes amid a deluge of negative news flow in nearly every aspect of the mortgage market. According to Credit Suisse, most ABCP issuers filled financing needs very quickly throughout trading last week, due to a weakening in supply, flat demand and a surprising increase in dealer participation. The bank is one of the few remaining major players of ABCP in the US market.

Traditional U.S. asset backed commercial paper programs significantly reduced exposures to collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage collateral throughout 2007 and into the first quarter of 2008, Fitch Ratings said Monday.

An examination of Fitch-rated U.S. Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) programs revealed that subprime related mortgage exposure decreased sharply in fourth quarter-2006 versus a significant spike in the year earlier period, according to information released by the rating agency on Monday. While subprime exposure remains high on an historical basis, Fitch said it believes the levels are manageable and that investors remain well insulated from the pressures facing other market participants.