The rush to Treasuries that resulted from investor fears about the U.S. and European economies has pushed interest rates closer to the level where a major mortgage refinance wave could start to take shape, but analysts say it’s a good time to load up on agency MBS. “The Fed’s commitment to keep interest rates low until at least mid 2013 strongly improves demand technicals for MBS, in our view,” said analysts at Credit Suisse in a report issued after the Federal Open Market Committee vowed to keep rates at historically low levels for at least two more years. “This provides ...

The retained mortgage portfolios at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to melt slowly during the second quarter as the government-sponsored enterprises reported significant losses and turned to the federal government for more funding to stay in business. The two GSEs held some $1.416 trillion of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities in portfolio at the end of June, a decrease of 2.3 percent from the first quarter and down 9.0 percent from the same period a year ago. The biggest decline was in unsecuritized home mortgages, down 2.5 percent from the first quarter, while GSE MBS holdings ... [includes one data chart]

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings have raised concerns about the proposed risk-retention rule that has sparked an outcry among MBS issuers, but the rating services appear to be taking a more measured view – in fact, S&P says it may be good for the market’s long-term health. In a recent report, S&P agreed with the industry consensus that the proposed rule won’t help the housing market and non-agency MBS sector right now. But the new standard for securitization, which sets a high bar for qualified residential mortgages that would be exempt from a ...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman blew the whistle on a pending settlement between Bank of America and MBS investors worth $8.5 billion for Countrywide non-agency MBS issued before the financial crisis. Schneiderman last week filed a lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon – a party to the settlement – for allegedly committing fraud while acting as trustee for MBS trusts securitized by BofA, and asked the court to reject the settlement proposal. “In negotiating the proposed settlement, BNYM labored under a conflict of interest because it stands ...

The recent rancorous debate over raising the debt ceiling brings little hope of relief from the overwhelming amount of regulation coming down the pike. Analysts say the uncertainty has made it more difficult to quantify risks for MBS and other securitized products. Analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch said the outcome of the debate was far worse than expected, forcing them to temper their optimism for securitized products. Instead, they are calling for a more neutral exposure. “The pragmatism we thought we would see never really emerged,” said Chris Flanagan, an analyst with the firm. “Instead ...

Fannie Mae is moving ahead to buy out some $880 million of distressed FHA and VA mortgages from multi-class structured securities the government-sponsored enterprise guaranteed because the sellers have stopped making contractually required interest shortfall payments after loan modifications resulted in lower interest rates. That means investors in those securities can expect to receive an unscheduled distribution on Aug. 25, 2011, the GSE said. Fannie made the initial purchase on Aug. 1, 2011. Fannie said it will release additional information on the purchase of the remaining ...

The Treasury Department is making significant changes to the Home Affordable Modification Program designed to match some of the success servicers have had with proprietary loss mitigation programs.Non-agency servicers participating in the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives short sale and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure portion of HAMP need to update their policies immediately, the Treasury announced this week. The structure for servicer incentive payments on non-agency first-lien HAMP mods will also change in October. "Unless prohibited by ... [includes one data chart]

Ocwen officials said last week that they are in talks with various mortgage holders to acquire more than $250 billion in mortgages to service. “We are in the midst of several discussions that could result in one or more substantial additional transactions later this year or early next year,” said William Erbey, chairman of Ocwen.Ron Faris, president and CEO of Ocwen, added that many of the deals are large and could involve servicing platforms. Most of the potential acquisitions are related to primary servicing, not subservicing.The announcement comes as Ocwen is set to ...

Preparations for a hoped-for return of non-agency jumbo origination and securitization have taken a financial toll on Redwood Trust, according to officials at the real-estate investment trust. “We have built our origination businesses for more volume than is currently available on the right terms,” Redwood officials said last week as part of their earnings release for the second quarter of 2011. “We believe our scale will ultimately pay off. For now, however, our operating costs are high relative to the net revenues we can earn off our invested capital without taking ...

A decline in high-cost conforming loan limits come October will either destabilize the mortgage markets or have a negligible impact on borrowers, depending on who is talking. Legislation to maintain temporarily elevated loan limits was recently introduced in the Senate, leading some non-agency players to fear that an extension is more likely. Sens. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Johnny Isakson, R-GA, last week introduced S. 1508, “the Homeownership Affordability Act of 2011.” The bill would extend high-cost conforming loan limits of up to $729,750 until ...