DBRS this week said seven firms are approved to provide third-party due diligence on non-agency mortgage-backed securities rated by the company. The companies are Allonhill, American Mortgage Consultants, Clayton, Digital Risk, Opus, RMG and R.R. Donnelley. Meanwhile, CoreLogic announced last week that Standard & Poor’s has approved the company as a third-party due diligence provider for non-agency MBS ... [Includes four briefs]

Lack of procedures for resolving repurchase conflicts between non-agency MBS investors and providers of representations and warranties could negatively affect the rating for any newly issued residential MBS, according to a new analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. The volume of unresolved repurchase conflicts between MBS investors and reps and warranties providers can be gauged by the number of lawsuits and the growing dollar value of settlements, said Moody’s analyst Kathryn Kelbaugh. The issue was thrust into the spotlight recently because 82 percent of the loans backing the $746 million non-agency...

A subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group issued a $741.94 million non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security at the end of March, the first jumbo issuance by a company other than Redwood Trust since 2008. CSMC Trust 2012-CIM1 included some unique characteristics prompting criticism from Fitch Ratings and speculation about whether Credit Suisse will issue more non-agency MBS. Standard & Poor’s and DBRS placed AAA ratings on the senior bond in the privately-placed deal based on 8.00 percent credit enhancement. Fitch – which was paid to provide feedback on the deal but ultimately was not selected to rate the deal – said the credit enhancement for the AAA tranche should have been 9.75 percent ...

Springleaf Finance completed another subprime mortgage-backed security comprised of vintage performing loans this week, its second such MBS in eight months. However, the firm is facing significant financial difficulties and stopped offering mortgages at the beginning of the year. The $473.01 million subprime MBS received a AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s, just like Springleaf’s $496.86 million subprime MBS in September. As with the previous security, the latest MBS was backed by seasoned performing loans, an average of six years-old in this case ...

First Republic Bank – the primary source of loans for Redwood Trust non-agency mortgage-backed securities – has received high marks for its jumbo originations. FRB’s originations are concentrated around San Francisco, largely for wealthy borrowers. After relying on CitiMortgage for all of the loans in its first post-bust non-agency MBS issuance, Redwood has relied heavily on FRB. The lender accounted for a slight majority of the four securities totaling $1.41 billion Redwood has issued in 2011 and at the beginning of 2012 ...

Credit Suisse has joined Redwood Trust to push the comeback of the non-agency MBS sector with a new public issue, while Springleaf Financial has put together another securitization backed by seasoned subprime mortgages. The Credit Suisse transaction, CSFB Mortgage Securities 2012-CIM1, is backed by $1.4 billion of prime residential mortgages, 82 percent of which had been originated by MetLife Home Loans. The deal sparked some controversy among rating services as Fitch Ratings questioned whether it had enough credit enhancement to cover risks related to property valuations on many of the...

New MBS and ABS issuance was up sharply in the first quarter of 2012, building on the momentum of a strong finish last year and heavy mortgage refinance activity. According to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis, a total of $430.0 billion of residential MBS and non-mortgage ABS were issued during the first quarter, up 17.8 percent from the final three months of 2011 and 13.4 percent higher than in first quarter of last year. It was the market’s highest three-month volume since the fourth quarter of 2010, another period of heavy mortgage refinance volume. Residential...(Includes two data charts)

Non-agency MBS deals have been plagued in the last two to three years by increasing instances of gaps and mismatches between expected collateral cash flow and payouts to bond holders, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. Most of the mismatches are attributable to balance capitalization, modifications and advances, either stopped or recovered by the mortgage servicers. Since most of the discrepancies are due to the treatment of delinquent mortgages, the gaps are widest in subprime. Sporadic mismatches have been spotted in option ARMs and Alt A hybrid loans as well, the analysts said...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities remained the preferred investment choice of the Federal Home Loan Banks during the fourth quarter of 2011, with a minor decline posted from the previous quarter, according to a new analysis by Inside The GSEs based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Ginnie Mae securities likewise posted a decline within the 12 FHLBank system during the three-month period ending Dec. 31, 2011. GSE MBS accounted for 69.6 percent of combined FHLBank MBS portfolios, down 2.1 percent from the third quarter of 2011. The Finance Agency’s data do not separately break out Fannie and Freddie volume or share.

A mere 4.7 percent of repurchase demands on loans in non-agency mortgage-backed securities have been resolved, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The $352.7 million in completed repurchases account for a small portion of the up to $64.18 billion in recoveries analysts estimate non-agency MBS investors could see from representation and warranty issues. According to new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, $7.45 billion in repurchase demands on non-agency MBS had been made as of the end of 2011. The first-time reports were filed by securitizers that are still in business and did not include heavyweights such as Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial, IndyMac, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual ... [Includes one data chart]