After the dust-up in the capital markets from the last meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee over when the central bank will begin to “taper” its huge asset purchase program, this week’s meeting of the FOMC provided no new clues about the timing of the Fed’s exit strategy. “To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the committee decided to continue purchasing additional agency MBS at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month,” the FOMC said, reiterating previous announcements. Also, the FOMC is...[Includes one data chart]

Despite the best efforts of supporters, including a renewed public showing of support from the White House, a new push to enhance the Home Affordable Refinance Program through legislation will go nowhere fast, say industry observers. Introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, the Rebuilding Equity Act, S. 1373, would modify HARP to cover $1,000 in closing costs for underwater borrowers who choose loan terms of 20 years or less to rebuild equity in their homes. “Both [the Congressional Budget Office] and Fannie Mae have estimated that this bill would have no net cost, because it would reduce the severity of financial loss when defaults do occur,” said Merkley. The bill would require...

Bank of New York Mellon has come under scrutiny for its actions in the proposed $8.5 billion settlement involving Bank of America and investors in 530 non-agency MBS issued by Countrywide Financial. A trial to approve the settlement regarding repurchase requests started in June and is on a break until early September. While the proposed settlement involves a payout from BofA, which acquired Countrywide, the settlement is an agreement between BNYM and 22 institutional investors represented by the law firm of Gibbs & Bruns. The agreement was reached under Article 77 which allowed BofA to have the settlement apply to all investors in the Countrywide securities in question. “I can honestly say...

Securitization of income-property mortgages declined by 7.9 percent during the second quarter of 2013, with the biggest drop coming in non-agency commercial MBS issuance, according to a new market analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. A total of $43.92 billion of commercial mortgage securities were issued during the second quarter, which still ranked as the second strongest quarter since the third quarter of 2007. For the first six months of 2013, total commercial mortgage securitization was up 78.5 percent from the same period, and the market appears likely to set another post-crash record by the time the year is over. The non-agency CMBS market has seen...[Includes one data chart]

Mortgage lenders saw a noticeable decline in refinancing of underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would be prohibited from repudiating covered bonds when resolving a failed banking institution under the provisions of a controversial housing reform bill put...

The Securities and Exchange Commission prevailed Thursday in its case against Fabrice Tourre, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs. The regulator also plans to increase enforcement against Wall Street...

The Senate opted to leave town this week for its five-week August recess without calling a vote on President Obama’s nominee to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Two weeks ago, Rep. Mel Watt’s...

House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-CA, sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director...

Industry analysts predict that Freddie Mac’s recently announced deal to shed some of the credit risk of the mortgages it guarantees to the private sector could provide the template for a broader risk-sharing program for both GSEs and opens the door for potentially promising policy implications. The $500 million offering of Structured Agency Credit Risk securities, which Freddie priced last week, aims to diminish taxpayer risk while introducing more private capital into the market. Due to investor demand, the size of the offering was increased from $400 million to $500 million, and about 50 broadly-diversified investors participated in the offering, including mutual funds, hedge funds, REITs, pension funds, banks, insurance companies and credit unions, according to Freddie CEO Donald Layton.