Standard & Poor’s is seeking comments on a proposal for assessing operational risk posed by key transaction parties such as servicers in structured finance transactions. The request for comments follows a similar request from S&P in 2011. “We made a number of changes to the previous request for comment in view of the responses we received and our desire to enhance the risk considerations under the proposed operational risk framework,” said Joseph Sheridan, S&P’s criteria officer. “We also expanded the proposal’s scope. Where we believe operational risk could lead to credit instability and a ratings impact, the proposal would call for rating caps that limit the securitization’s maximum potential rating.” The rating service is proposing...

Legislation introduced earlier this month by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, to facilitate refinance options for struggling student loan borrowers could negatively affect existing student loan ABS trusts while benefitting certain kinds of bonds at the expense of others, according to Wall Street analysts that closely follow the space. Overall, it’s considered a negative. The good news is, the legislation isn’t expected to be enacted this year. The bad news is, other similar measures are expected to emerge after the November elections. Introduced May 6, 2014, S. 2292, the “Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act,” would permit...

Sources contend that three other top executives also have left Nationstar Mortgage. At press time, Nationstar’s media department had not returned telephone calls and emails on the matter.

An ambitious, bipartisan mortgage reform bill that would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while repurposing the Federal Housing Finance Agency limped out of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. The measure is expected to die waiting for a floor vote that will never occur. The committee voted 13 to 9 to report out a revised version of S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act.

The new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency wants to set a path for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with less emphasis on shrinking the two GSEs and a greater focus on “the present.” In his first major policy speech, FHFA Director Mel Watt told a packed room at the Brookings Institution how he seeks to “reformulate” the agency’s past conservatorship goals for the GSEs. “Our task is to continue to fulfill our statutory mandates, to execute our strategic plan and to manage the present status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Watt.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, D, is calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to allow the GSEs to participate in a state-sponsored buyback initiative, as well as to allow principal reductions to keep Bay State residents in their homes “or face legal action.” In a letter dispatched this week to FHFA Director Mel Watt, Coakley said her office is reviewing “all legal options” regarding Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s refusal to comply with an August 2012 state law.

Lenders selling loans to the GSEs will get buyback relief for mortgages that go through Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s quality-control review processes, according to a new policy the companies announced this week. The new policy, issued in conjunction with the unveiling of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s updated strategic plan and conservatorship scorecard, tinkers at the edges of the buyback safe harbor for loans with acceptable payment history.

Expect eligibility standards for mortgage insurance firms that rely on the GSEs later this year, according to MI executives’ reading of the long-awaited strategic plan released this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Although the plan didn’t say much about MI eligibility, it does carry the veiled promise that pending standards, including risk-to-capital rules – are forthcoming. “FHFA hasn’t dropped the ball on the issue,” said one MI consultant who has met with the agency over the topic. “They now know that the [GSE reform bill] is dead and they want to make sure they get it right.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, under recently installed Director Mel Watt, will continue to ensure that the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks play their “important role” in providing reliable funding and secondary mortgage market access to member institutions, as well as maintain the Banks’ statutory affordable housing requirements, so said the man himself. Last week, in his first public speech before a financial services group, Watt cautioned FHLBank directors to keep a close watch on captive insurers that are seeking membership in the FHLB system.

Fannie: Single Point of Contact Lessens Foreclosure Risks. Offering a single point of contact who is plugged into the case of a distressed borrower greatly lessens the chance of that mortgage reaching foreclosure, according to a new study from Fannie Mae. During a press call with reporters last week, Leslie Peeler of Fannie’s National Servicing Organization noted that the research conducted by the GSE involving five large – but unnamed – mortgage servicers using the SPOC model concluded that homeowners dealing with the same individual were twice as likely to receive and accept a modification.