Bill Beckmann, a former top official at CitiMortgage, has been named as the new president and CEO of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems and its parent entity, MERSCORP. Beckmann is leaving behind his private consulting firm to join the company. Previously, he was chairman and CEO of CitiMortgage where he had responsibility for strategy, sales, operations, capital markets, and regulation/compliance. Before that, he was president of Citigroup’s real estate servicing and technology group, providing customer service, technology and default…

A handful of high-profile developments on the representations and warranties front over the last few months is prompting non-agency investors to contemplate whether they should start pricing in the benefits associated from repurchases. A few weeks ago, Bank of America and mortgage insurer Assured Guaranty reached a...

The Treasury Market Practices Group wants to improve efficiency in the agency MBS market by imposing charges for failure to complete transactions. “The TMPG is proposing fails charges in the agency debt and agency MBS markets in order to reduce the incidence of delivery failures in the market,” said Tom Wipf, chair of...

The city of Los Angeles on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and its subsidiaries for failing to maintain the properties of loans that were pooled in non-agency MBS for which the company served as trustee. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich filed the over 200-page complaint, which accused the bank of...

A bill that would create a legislative framework for a covered bond market in the U.S. cleared a House subcommittee with bipartisan support this week following some fine tuning by its sponsors to address concerns raised by critics and regulators. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and...

Securitization markets would gain more certainty regarding securities issuance going forward under legislation passed out of a House subcommittee this week that would restore to credit rating agencies their previous exemption from expert liability under the Securities Act of 1933. The exemption was removed with...

Some investors are ready to resume participation in the non-agency market while most others will take a wait-and-see approach, based on comments made at the secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association this week in New York City. Steve O’Connor, senior vice president of public policy and...

“The [jumbo] market is much bigger than the banks’ balance sheets,” according to Randy Robertson, a managing director and co-head of securitized products at BlackRock. The firm’s jumbo mortgage real-estate investment trust has been operating for four months and aims to help re-establish the...

Mandatory risk-retention requirements will severely limit non-agency mortgage originations and securitization, according to market participants. Even portfolio originations could be hindered due to the pending rule from federal regulators. “Loan availability is likely to be quite restricted in the...

Non-bank servicers are likely to face regulatory scrutiny and mandated changes, according to industry lawyers. And the consent orders recently issued by federal regulators to 14 large banks and thrifts could serve as best practices for non-bank servicers until the expected punishments are levied. “If history is any guide, it’s not going to be...