CFPB Makes Annual Threshold Adjustments Per HMDA, TILA Regulations. Late last month, the CFPB issued two final rules regarding annual threshold adjustments under the implementing regulations for the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the Truth in Lending Act. Under the HMDA regulation, Reg. C, the asset-size exemption for banks, savings associations and credit unions will remain at $44 million. As a result, such institutions with assets of $44 million or less as of Dec. 31, 2015, are exempt from collecting HMDA data in 2016. “An institution’s exemption from collecting data in 2016 does not affect its responsibility to report the data it was required to collect in 2015,” the CFPB said. The rule became effective Jan. 1, 2016, and applies ...

Residential lenders issued a record $435.8 billion of Ginnie Mae securities in 2015, according to Inside MBS & ABS, a handsome 47 percent increase from the prior year.

In addition to misrepresenting prices sought by buyers and sellers of MBS, the DOJ said Siegel and co-conspirators misrepresented that bonds held in RBS’s inventory were being offered for sale by a fictitious third-party seller…

Specifically, the bureau’s notice asks for public comment on the agency’s use of resubmission error thresholds and how they should be calculated.

DR Horton’s share price is holding up fairly well, but companies such as KB Homes, Pulte and Toll Brothers are trading near their 52-week lows.

In the end, 2015 produced a solid, if unspectacular, supply of new agency single-family MBS and non-mortgage ABS after peaking in the second quarter of the year. A total of $1.498 trillion of single-family MBS and non-mortgage ABS were issued in 2015, a 28.1 percent increase from the year before, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. But 2014 ranked as the weakest year since the financial meltdown, and the 2015 output was the fourth lowest in the 21st century during a period of historically low interest rates and steady economic growth. Most components of the market slowed...[Includes three data tables]

The Department of Justice announced in December that a structured finance supervisor at RBS Securities pleaded guilty to participating in a multi-million dollar securities fraud scheme and is cooperating with the government’s ongoing investigation. Adam Siegel was co-head of U.S. ABS, MBS and commercial MBS trading at RBS between 2008 and 2014. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Connecticut said Siegel admitted that he and others conspired to increase RBS’s profits on trades of residential MBS and collateralized loan obligations at the expense of customers. “His crime included...

Four nonprime MBS backed by newly-originated residential loans came to market during the last four months of 2015, but none of deals were rated, a situation that could change in the new year. In a recent interview with Inside MBS & ABS, John Hsu, head of capital markets for Angel Oak Capital, said his company hopes to get a rated deal done in 2016, believing such a milestone would help move the nascent market forward. “We need...

Exams by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2015 uncovered a number of problems at rating services large and small, according to a report released by the SEC at the end of December. However, the firms weren’t identified by name because the exams aren’t public. The report is a laundry list of findings involving the 10 nationally recognized statistical rating organizations, six of which are involved in the MBS and ABS markets. The findings came from exams that focused on activities in 2014. Offending rating services generally were referred to solely based on their size, with Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s referred to as “larger” rating services and the other companies referred to as “smaller” rating services. The SEC said...

A case in bankruptcy court regarding the priority of payment provisions for collateralized debt obligations could have broad ramifications for derivatives transactions at the heart of the structured finance industry, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group and other industry groups. In late December, SFIG filed an amicus brief in Lehman Brothers Special Financing v. Bank of America, which is being heard in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association filed a separate brief, making points similar to those raised by SFIG. LBSF is suing...