The SEC will push for admissions of guilt as part of settlements of lawsuits it files against private industry, including participants in the MBS market.
It appears that Cerberus is going down the mortgage aisle one more time. Let's hope it doesn't end like GMAC. Meanwhile, jumbo MBS market seizes up, temporarily.
Participants in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market are concerned about the strength of the sector as interest rates and other pricing metrics have increased significantly in recent weeks. When the 10-year Treasury rate started to rise recently and the mortgage interest rate spread out by 20 basis points, the non-agency MBS market spread out by 50 basis points, said Lewis Ranieri, chairman of Ranieri Partners, at a forum hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center last week. And given theres ...
Shellpoint Partners issued its first non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security this week, which differs in a number of ways from non-agency MBS issued since 2010. The deal is an attempt to loosen slightly non-agency MBS underwriting standards, although the rating services were critical of the originator, New Penn Financial. Shellpoint Asset Funding Trust 2013-1 was initially planned as a $261.58 million non-agency MBS, according to presale reports issued last week. The deal was reportedly restructured ...
The preferences of investors and the rating services play a significant role in the characteristics of mortgages included in non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed securities, according to industry participants. The rating agencies are a first part of the analysis, but investors in these bonds are paying very careful attention to these loan characteristics, to credit exceptions and to who the lenders are, Peter Sack, a managing director at Credit Suisse, said this week at a webinar ...
A bipartisan group of members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee introduced legislation this week to reform the government-sponsored enterprises. However, industry participants and analysts predict that Congress is unlikely to pass GSE reform anytime soon. S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act, would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within five years of passage and replace their functions with a new government entity ...
For the past two years, Bank of America has been the poster child of legacy servicing sales, but it may soon have some company. According to industry advisors who specialize in the mortgage servicing rights market, JPMorgan Chase and a few other large banks with seasoned portfolios are developing deal teams to explore their options. Chases name has surfaced from time to time as a select seller of legacy product. But it also has been a selective buyer of servicing, including the purchase last fall of $70 billion in rights from MetLife, which was closing out its interest in the mortgage business. A spokeswoman for Chase declined...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking additional authority from Congress to transfer FHA mortgage servicing in order to facilitate loss mitigation. The change would allow the FHA to require specific actions when a servicer is underperforming or has a low score on HUDs Tiered Ranking System, including the transfer of servicing to an FHA-designated special servicer or requiring a servicer to enter into a sub-servicing agreement. With expanded powers, the FHA also may require a servicer to engage a third-party to assist in loss mitigation services. Such authority would enable the FHA to better avoid losses due to poor servicing and, thus, protect the MMI Fund, HUD said. Testifying before a Senate appropriations subcommittee, FHA Commissioner Carol Galante noted...