An official from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York defended the joint agency proposed rule on risk retention, claiming that it doesn’t do anything to block incentives to securitize. The proposed rule has been widely criticized by Wall Street and other financial institutions, which have urged the agencies to start over again with a new proposal. “I don’t understand how you would get...

Ginnie Mae has made some changes regarding the collection and reporting of data on the underlying collateral that backs outstanding Ginnie Mae MBS. The goal is to expand the type of data collected at pool issuance to provide greater transparency and more relevant information to investors. The technical changes were laid out this week for Ginnie Mae program participants during a webinar hosted by the agency. Some of the changes relate...

Tradeweb claims its Round Robin functionality has curbed trade failures in the to be announced mortgage market to the tune of $166 billion since it was introduced in November. First, the service has reduced the “round robin” risk; that is, the risk associated with a chain of matched fails that frequently becomes a closed loop. The new technology enables institutional clients to pair-off TBA mortgage pool transactions with dealers, which reduces...

Overseas investors were net sellers of U.S. agency notes and bonds – including agency MBS – during the first quarter of 2011, according to an analysis of market data by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Associations. Foreign investors bought some $5.46 billion of agency paper during the first quarter of this year, but that wasn’t...[Includes one data chart]

The Treasury Market Practices Group this week proposed a revised recommendation for a charge on MBS deals that fail. Under the new policy, the fails charge of agency MBS would be the greater of 0 percent or 2.0 percent minus the federal funds target rate. The charge would accrue...

Facing a growing coalition of dissatisfied non-agency mortgage-backed security investors, Bank of America announced this week that it plans to settle a large portion of its non-agency MBS claims related to buybacks and servicing. The action sets a precedent for the sector, making settlements with other non-agency MBS issuers more likely. “Bank of America has charted...[Includes one graph]

At least three lenders are looking to re-establish the market for non-prime lending. Two firms are hoping to attract additional funding and begin non-prime lending shortly, while a smaller player is already offering the loans. Shellpoint Partners has plans to expand the offerings of a recently acquired agency originator, New Penn Financial. Shellpoint is a specialty finance company and joint venture with Ranieri Partners. Lewis Ranieri, a co-founder of Shellpoint, said...

Subprime borrowers in rural areas have been significantly impacted by mandatory escrow requirements on higher-priced mortgages, according to community banks. The Independent Community Bankers of America is leading efforts by banks to limit or remove escrow requirements currently enforced by the Federal Reserve. The minimum period for mandatory escrow accounts for most first-lien higher-priced mortgages would be expanded...

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, is considering putting together comprehensive legislation that would reconcile a number of existing mortgage servicing-related bills already introduced in the Senate, according to top industry representatives and other Capitol Hill sources closely following the developments.“There has been some interest expressed by Sen. Menendez’s office in yoking together a lot of different bills in terms of a comprehensive bill,” one informed source confided. “But it’s not clear how much ...