With upwards of $15 billion in nonperforming mortgages expected to be sold at auction this year – and with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac entering the market – securitizations of these problem loans could take off during the next few quarters. To date, there has been little information about nonperforming securitizations, though a handful of private deals have been issued over the past 18 months, market sources told Inside MBS & ABS. “Deals are getting done...

The proposed “Public Guarantor” to replace the government-sponsored enterprises would not only provide an explicit backstop for qualifying MBS in a post-GSE world, it would also serve as a regulator of sorts under terms spelled out in a housing policy paper issued this week. The report by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission called for a “far greater role” for the private sector in the mortgage market, a continued but limited role for the federal government, the graduated elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reform of the FHA. The BPC’s plan calls for...

Improving house prices and increased availability of private mortgage insurance should provide greater opportunity to FHA borrowers to refinance to conventional loans, according to a recent report from Barclays Research. FHA annual mortgage insurance premiums are set to go up another 10 basis points on April 1 for most loans, except mortgages originated before June 2009 that are being refinanced through FHA’s streamline refi program. Those loans pay just 1 basis point in upfront premium and 55 bps in annual premiums. The most recent available data – through November 2012 – show...

Adherents of a global tax proposal that would help countries raise revenue and make the financial sector pay for its fair share of crisis costs are calling on the U.S. for support. But first, the U.S. must overcome its fear of the “financial transaction tax,” or FTT, before this controversial tax option can be adopted globally, according to panelists in a forum hosted this week by the Center for American Progress. The CAP believes the tax is a “smart policy tool” that is both a revenue raiser and a stabilizer of volatile financial markets. The FTT is...

The Federal Reserve is open to the idea of making the "qualified residential mortgage" definition in the pending risk-retention rule the same as that of the "qualified mortgage" standard.

Residential fundings are starting to slow as refinancings wane, according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Heavy refinance activity, especially through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, boosted the conventional conforming market by a whopping 35 percent in 2012.

The "Qualified Mortgage" rule will survive any legal testing of the authority of CFPB chief Richard Cordray.

Wells Fargo says it is committed to its remaining joint venture lending partners but isn't giving out any names on the JVs.

According to a new analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, REIT MBS investors as a group increased their MBS holdings by 47.4 percent in 2012.