The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual “performance goal” scorecard for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been issued to the two government-sponsored enterprises for comment and likely will be released by month’s end, according to industry officials briefed on the matter. But as for its contents going forward, that’s a different matter entirely. The 2013 version set forth...
Hisey, a former Fannie Mae executive, has been given the title of chief strategy and external affairs officer, a newly created position at the nonbank lender/servicer.
New residential MBS issuance in the first three months of 2014 sank to the lowest quarterly volume since late in 2000, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. A total of $191.7 billion of residential MBS were issued in the first quarter of this year, down 25.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013. Compared to first quarter of 2013, new MBS issuance was down 59.2 percent. MBS production has been falling...[Includes two data charts]
The underwriting characteristics on the latest risk-sharing transaction from Freddie Mac have loosened somewhat compared with previous Structured Agency Credit Risk deals, prompting default expectations well above those projected for recently issued jumbo MBS. However, the government-sponsored enterprises’ risk-sharing transactions are still seen as good investments and investor demand has been strong. Freddie is preparing to sell a total of $966.0 million in three tranches to investors based on a reference pool with an unpaid principal balance of $28.15 billion. The deal priced this week. Freddie said more than 75 investors bought in and the deal was oversubscribed. The top tranche on STACR 2014-DN2 available for sale to investors is set...
At least 46 vintage non-agency MBS took principal forbearance-related losses in March, according to industry analysts. The losses are a concern for investors because they were taken without warning, based on forbearance that happened well before March. Most of the deals taking retroactive forbearance losses in March were issued by Bear Stearns from 2005 through 2007 and were largely serviced by JPMorgan Chase, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital. Write-downs on the deals were as high as 6.8 percent for a single month. “When a servicer recognizes losses on loans previously modified with forbearance, it could significantly impact...
Leading secondary-market representatives told the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority they generally support its goal of mitigating the counterparty credit risk borne by participants in the “to be announced” market and reducing the potential for systemic risk. But they are opposed to FINRA’s proposal to require maintenance margin to attain that aim – something the Treasury Market Practices Group has already considered and rejected. Issued back in January, FINRA’s proposed amendments stipulated that for bilateral transactions in covered agency securities with non-exempt accounts, FINRA members must collect, in addition to variation margin, maintenance margin equal to 2 percent of the market value of the securities. If sufficient margin is not collected, the member would have to deduct the uncollected amount from the member’s net capital at the close of business following the business day on which the deficiency was created. Additionally, if the deficiency in margin is not resolved...
Allonhill LLC, a Denver-based due-diligence firm that served both Wall Street and primary market lenders, recently filed for bankruptcy protection, just days after losing a civil case where it was found liable for breach of contract and fraud, and ordered to pay its former client, Aurora Bank FSB, more than $25 million in damages. Last year, Allonhill’s owners – including principal Sue Allon – sold most of the firm’s assets to Stewart Title. From a legal standpoint, it was not a “franchise” deal, which means Stewart should not be on the hook for any actions of the corporate entity. However, the case may be...
In the pre-crash days, newly created MSRs were selling at 6 and even 7 times the servicing fee. “I even saw prices of eight,” said Chuck Klein, managing partner for Mortgage Banking Solution.
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