Allison Bisbey

Residents' low incomes usually disqualify them for standard student loan refinancings, but SoFi and other lenders describe these borrowers as strong credits with high earnings potential who could offset some of the risks lurking in student loan pools.

James Bennison, head of alternative capital markets at Arch Capital Group, says that a new insurance-linked security helps with regulatory capital requirements and provides information that can help the company to better manage risk.

The tighter spreads on the fintech student lender's latest securitization should help offset a rise in the underlying benchmark rates, keeping its funding costs low — and helping it compete more effectively.

While some tackle the problem by offering their own consolidation loans, Sallie Mae is developing products with extended terms that reduce borrowers' monthly payments in an effort to discourage borrowers from refinancing in the first place.

Navient has suspended stock buybacks to buy and expand a debt-refinancing firm that faces stiff competition from fintechs, and some shareholders aren’t happy.

It’s not clear whether syndicated credit agreements require 100% investor consent before adopting a new benchmark. The industry trade group suggests giving new loans the flexibility to change indexes without unanimous approval, but investor advocates are balking.

With fewer CMBS deals coming to market — partly as a result of risk-retention rules — an independent finance company like Ladder Capital can’t always wait to piggyback on Wall Street’s transactions.

So-called transitional lending has traditionally been kept on balance sheet; but it’s become attractive to bundle the loans for transactions called (take a deep breath) commercial real estate collateralized loan obligations. Can investors stomach the features these deals sported before the crisis?

Property Assessed Clean Energy loans can no longer be offered in unincorporated areas of Kern County, Calif. The controversial loans, meant to promote energy efficiency, began in California and are now offered in a number of states.

Chinese banks and insurance companies represent a new and potentially large source of capital that could crowd out U.S. banks as investors in collateralized loan obligations.

Sponsoring securitizations of the loans funded on its platform will give LendingClub more control over its reputation in the market and make it less beholden to direct loan buyers.

The trend of putting ever-smaller pieces of the same commercial mortgages into multiple securitizations requires investors to be extra careful, and will inevitably make workouts of bad loans more complicated.

Navient and Nelnet, the two largest student loan servicers, avoided downgrades on some $18 billion of bonds by extending their maturities. Getting the required consents from investors would normally take ages, but recent innovations speeded the process.

Triumph Bancorp in Texas agreed to sell its CLO management firm just months after new risk retention rules kicked in.

The Structured Finance Industry Group and Chamber of Digital Commerce will explore ways distributed ledger technology might speed transaction processing and improve transparency.

PHH is selling its remaining residential mortgage servicing portfolio to the real estate investment trust New Residential.

Commercial mortgage lenders, and investors in their bonds, have been more eager than the residential market to embrace Property Assessed Clean Energy loans even though those loans hold a superior-lien position. Here's why.

A recent federal court decision affirming the right of a servicer to collect on private student loans originated on Sallie Mae's behalf is good news for several parties, including marketplace lenders and others that partner with banks to make loans.

Both government-sponsored enterprises discount the rates on loans for buildings with "green" certifications; they also underwrite some of the projected savings from upgrades on buildings of a certain age, allowing owners to take out bigger loans.

Steve Eisman, who profited from the mortgage meltdown, tells an industry crowd why he thinks the financial system is safer under Dodd-Frank, why Silicon Valley is "clueless" about lending and what the next "big short" will be.