The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has adjusted a proposal that would set margin requirements for to-be-announced MBS. The independent regulator made some concessions to industry participants compared with a proposal issued in January 2014. FINRA’s proposed rule change was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. Comments will be accepted for 21 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register, which is expected shortly. FINRA noted...

Pizza, hamburgers and doughnuts have helped fuel a record year for whole-business securitization. The deals, which gained some popularity among investors before the financial crisis, are backed by franchise royalty and license payments. Late last week, Standard & Poor’s assigned a preliminary BBB+ rating to the planned $1.63 billion Domino’s Pizza Master Issuer LLC 2015-1. The whole-business securitization will be backed by franchise royalty and license payments, Domino’s intellectual property, and profits from distribution arrangements. Earlier this year, Dunkin Brands issued...

The guidance doesn’t “tells us anything more than where we were an hour before this guidance came out," according to Michael Barone, a director of legal and regulatory compliance at Lenders Compliance Group.

Over the past two years, roughly $13 billion in securities backed by single-family rental properties have come to market, a good start for a business that barely existed five years ago. But despite that growth, there are concerns that the “easy money” could be behind the sector. Some of that concern stems from the flood of entrants into the single-family rental market – a boom that turned red hot in 2012 and 2013 when it was first revealed that institutional investors such as The Blackstone Group and others were buying thousands of properties in once decimated housing markets with an eye toward renting them out. When investors began issuing securities backed by the rent rolls, even more money began pouring...

The company said it has an opportunity to “disrupt the market and gain share” by displacing incumbent participants and addressing unmet demand.

Recent disappointing job creation numbers and continued concern about slowing economic activity around the globe have convinced an increasing number of Wall Street analysts, participants and observers that the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee will not raise interest rates at its next meeting, scheduled for later this month. Further, more market professionals don’t predict an uptick in rates until sometime in 2016. And a few are even speculating a liftoff won’t come until the year after that. According to Peter Schiff, CEO and chief global strategist for investment firm Euro Pacific Capital, “the downright dismal September jobs report that was released last Friday may prove...

“Greater up-front harmonization of the GSEs’ policies and procedures is not only necessary, but fundamental to the success of the single-security initiative,” according to the Structured Finance Industry Group.

U.S. Mortgage Insurers is close to presenting proof of concept involving “deep cover” mortgage insurance to policymakers.

New business in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities operations fell slightly during the third quarter of 2015, including larger declines among nonbanks and small depository institutions. Fannie and Freddie securitized $223.5 billion of single-family mortgages during the third quarter, a 3.8 percent drop from the previous period, according to a new Inside The GSEs ranking and analysis. Through the first nine months of 2015, GSE MBS issuance was 42.2 percent higher than the same period last year, although the annual total is likely to fall short of the $900 billion mark when the year ends. The nonbank share of GSE business fell slightly from the second quarter, snapping a long period of growth for independent mortgage bankers.

Reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is likely not in the cards for this Congress. Speaking at a housing finance forum sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington this week, Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, said he doesn’t expect any changes over the short term. “It’s going to be a while. It’s not going to happen over the next year and four months,” he said. “Both sides don’t want to address a tough issue.” The Republican from Tennessee added that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are avoiding the issue. Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, also speaking at the event, said while there may not be any legislation in the near future, he’s hopeful for some type of incremental movement.