The Securities and Exchange Commission’s overdue “Franken amendment” study will be out soon and may include alternatives to the issuer-pay ratings model, the agency’s chief, Mary Schapiro, said last week at the annual meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. “The issuer-pay model has inherent conflicts in it,” Schapiro said, referring to the prevailing system in which securities issuers generally pay to obtain ratings from the credit rating services. The SEC head provided no additional specifics regarding the alternatives that might be featured in the agency’s pending report. The Franken amendment study is...

Basel III capital requirements proposed by federal regulators will have a significant negative impact on U.S. bank holdings of agency and non-agency MBS, according to industry participants. The capital requirements have yet to be finalized and are currently scheduled to begin being phased in Jan. 1 with full implementation in 2018. In June, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed rules to implement Basel III capital standards – the most comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. bank capital framework since Basel I was implemented in 1989. Comments were due last week, and strong warnings were submitted by trade groups representing MBS market participants, banks and mortgage lenders. “If the Basel III [proposed rule] were implemented...

A win by Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney should benefit the MBS market more than an Obama reelection because it would reduce the chances of revisiting principal forgiveness for underwater borrowers, according to analysts. Knowing little about Romney’s position about housing finance other than his intention to lower taxpayer exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, trim the government’s real estate-owned inventory and come up with more foreclosure alternatives, Deutsche Bank analysts presume a Romney administration would oppose principal forgiveness. In the event of a second term, President Obama would likely use...

Mortgage lenders reported solid increases in loan originations during the third quarter of 2012, leading to a surge in securitization activity at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Single-family mortgage originations totaled $475.0 billion during the third quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. That was up 9.2 percent from the second quarter of the year and marked the highest quarterly origination volume since the end of 2010, when an earlier refi surge pushed production to $520.0 billion. The strong third quarter suggests...[Includes two data charts]

Participants in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market expect the amount of MBS backed by newly originated non-agency mortgages to increase significantly in 2013 and beyond – even without reform of the government-sponsored enterprises. A number of factors have combined to make the market ripe for new non-agency MBS, according to attendees at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in Miami. “Borrowers want loans, lenders want to lend and investors want yield,” ... [Includes one data chart]

Redwood Trust issued a $320.34 million non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security last week, its fifth of the year. With the latest transaction, the company has produced $1.67 billion in non-agency jumbo MBS in 2012. Grant Bailey, a managing director at Fitch Ratings, said Redwood’s post-bust securities are “the best transactions ever done in non-agency MBS history.” Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2012-5 received AAA ratings from Fitch, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service, with 7.30 percent ...

Shellpoint Partners filed a shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week with plans to issue new non-agency mortgage-backed securities. Officials at the company have stressed that the MBS will be even more investor-friendly than the high-quality jumbo MBS issued by Redwood Trust. “Investors should know that what they are buying is a clean loan,” Eric Kaplan, a managing director at Shellpoint, said this week at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management ...

Republicans in the House will approve a package of legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises next year, according to the chief of staff for Rep. David Schweikert, R-AZ. The Arizona lawmaker is also working on a bipartisan bill to establish a framework for the non-agency mortgage-backed security market. Speaking at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in Miami, Matthew Tully, chief of staff for Schweikert, said GSE reform is a top agenda item for House ...

With the help of consumer advocates, five borrowers filed a class-action lawsuit last week against Morgan Stanley alleging racial discrimination tied to the issuance of subprime mortgage-backed securities. The case appears to be the first to connect securitization and racial discrimination and the first class-action by borrowers against an investment bank. “It literally is the first case of Main Street holding Wall Street accountable for the abuses that happened and the aftermath in the Great Recession,” ...

Two more funds started to exit the Public-Private Investment Program in the third quarter of 2012. Returns from the program – which largely focuses on investing in vintage non-agency mortgage-backed securities – remain strong and the Public-Private Investment Funds can manage their holdings for at least the next five years, but four of the original nine PPIFs have now exited the PPIP. In July, RLJ Western terminated its PPIF’s investment period four months ahead of schedule. The notification occurred shortly after ...