Another bank bites the dust in wholesale: Fifth Third Bank, which ranks second among depositories in the channel, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.
The first two months of 2014 generated just $132.85 billion of new agency MBS, down 57.6 percent from the same period last year. A harsh winter in many parts of the country hasn’t helped.
A coalition of California municipalities is preparing to issue a $104.40 million ABS backed by proceeds from Property Assessed Clean Energy assessments. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has raised concerns about PACE loans, but industry analysts suggest that the FHFA doesn’t pose much of a risk to the planned ABS, even though a significant portion of the PACE loans in the deal are on properties with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Kroll Bond Rating Agency said 31 states have passed legislation allowing municipalities to create PACE programs. The programs allow local governments to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency projects on privately-owned properties. The Home Energy Renovation Opportunity program is a PACE program that helps finance energy-efficient upgrades and improvements such as solar, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, windows, roofing and water-saving products. HERO Funding Class A Notes, Series 2014-1, is set...
It’s been almost six months since the Federal Housing Finance Agency filed articles of incorporation for the entity creating the common securitization platform, but the agency continues to maintain a wall of silence on key issues related to the project, including the size of its operating budget. According to private-sector officials who have been provided certain information about the project – legally incorporated as Common Securitization Solutions LLC – the joint venture has an annual budget of between $100 million and $300 million. One former government-sponsored enterprise executive, requesting anonymity, said...
Although investors and participants initially showed a great deal of interest in the fledgling market for bonds backed by single-family rental properties, rating agencies are starting to take a closer look at the business and don’t like everything they see. “Rising U.S. home prices have pushed down rental yields in many single-family rental markets, a trend that will likely discourage some institutional investors from buying distressed properties and converting them into rental units,” according to a recent report from Moody’s Investor Service. The rating agency adds...
A few weeks back, Rep. Mark Takano, D-CA, called for Congressional hearings on the single-family rental MBS market, singling out investments made by the Blackstone Group.
Company executive Doug Reilly, commenting on the mortgage M&A market, had this to say: “It seems we need to take 20 girls to the alter just to marry one”…
A federal judge last week granted discovery to attorneys for a hedge fund representing one group of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders as it seeks to challenge the government’s August 2012 “net worth sweep” that effectively confiscates both GSEs’ profits. Fairholme Capital Management, founded by Wall Street veteran Bruce Berkowitz, controls roughly $2.4 billion (face value) of Fannie and Freddie "junior" preferred. Thanks to the September 2008 government takeover of the two firms, the U.S. Treasury controls the senior preferred and is effectively the owner of the two GSEs.
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