The non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed securities issued by Redwood Trust between March 2010 and November 2012 havent taken any losses, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Delinquencies on the securities remain extremely low, and a significant portion of mortgages included in the MBS have prepaid. As of July, three of the nine non-agency jumbo MBS issued by Redwood from 2010 through 2012 had loans that were delinquent. However, the loans were only in the 30-day delinquency bucket ...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a settlement this week with UBS Americas regarding non-agency mortgage-backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 2004 and 2007. It is the third settlement out of 18 similar lawsuits filed by the FHFA in 2011 and the first to include a disclosed dollar amount. The FHFA said UBS will pay a combined ... [Includes two briefs]
Ginnie Mae servicers continued to experience modest increases in servicing outstanding while FHA servicers reported a slight increase in 30-to-60 day delinquencies, according to Inside FHA Lendings analysis of the agencies servicing portfolios as of midyear 2013. As of June 30, Ginnie Maes total servicing outstanding was $1.4 trillion, an increase of 6.6 percent from last year and up 1.8 percent from the first quarter, reflecting improvements in government-backed loan originations due to a slowly recovering economy. Ginnie Mae servicing volume has been ... [2 charts]
When it comes to guaranty fees, FHFA has taken "meaningful steps" to level the playing field for community lenders, one agency official testified this week.
Rising interest rates and increased volatility helped slow new issuance of non-mortgage ABS during the second quarter of 2013, with declines posted in most asset classes. A total of $38.96 billion of non-mortgage ABS were issued during the second quarter, down 17.3 percent from the first three months of the year, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. At the midway point in 2013, ABS issuance was off 3.7 percent from the first six months of last year, which included heavy volume in the second quarter of 2012. Even with the second-quarter softening, ABS issuance in 2013 is...[Includes two data charts]
Federal prosecutors and members of the Justice Departments Residential MBS Working Group are reportedly considering a new strategy for criminally charging Wall Street bankers for alleged fraud in their packaging and sale of MBS backed by subprime mortgages at the peak of the housing frenzy. According to Reuters, the members of the working group are eye-balling a shift in strategy that would involve moving away from the more widely used securities fraud charges to the less common offense of bank fraud. Perpetrators of bank fraud can be charged up to 10 years after their crimes, compared with the five-year statute of limitations on securities fraud, which has already run out on most events leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, Reuters reported. A bank fraud conviction carries up to $1 million in fines and a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. Laurence Platt, financial services practice leader in the Washington, DC, office of the K&L Gates law firm, said...
Freddie Mac this week issued the first in a series of planned transactions from the government-sponsored enterprises to share risk with the non-agency market. Industry analysts suggest that while the transaction represents a good value for investors, the audience for the transactions structured like a synthetic collateralized debt obligation is limited. The Structured Agency Credit Risk Debt Notes 2013-DN1 included a total of $500 million in two non-guaranteed tranches sold to investors with 10-year terms, according to non-agency market participants. The STACR reference pool consists...
Federal regulators will make their next move on risk retention and defining qualified residential mortgages in September, according to the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission is working on a number of long-pending MBS rules, including the so-called Reg AB2. The Fed expects to take further action on risk retention in September, according to its latest regulatory agenda. The SEC, which is jointly working on the risk-retention rule with the Fed and other agencies, was vague, stating that the next action date was undetermined. Regulators have received...