The FHFA wants Fannie and Freddie to institute proper controls and perform monitoring on their multifamily counterparties…

Most of the month-to-month slump was at Freddie, where MBS production fell 8.9 percent from June.

With the launch of the single security less than a year away, there are some uncertainties that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the industry expect to have cleared up before making the switch next June. They range from ensuring fungibility between Fannie and Freddie securities, to creating more regulatory clarity, preparing third parties and determining how the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will consider the new security in the to-be-announced market....

As a group, commercial banks and thrifts ended the second quarter of 2018 with slightly reduced holdings of single-family MBS, although several institutions raised their stakes in the market significantly, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. [Includes two data charts.]

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS fell to $204.1 billion in July, the weakest reading of the year, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be on track for a June 2019 launch of the new uniform MBS, but the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has yet to issue a formal declaration on to-be-announced eligibility for UMBS.

Thanks to higher interest rates and rock-solid valuations, the market for securities backed by mortgage servicing rights is beginning to heat up, with at least two deals hitting the market this month – one from PennyMac, the other from AmeriHome Mortgage.

The Department of Justice this week announced a $4.9 billion settlement with the Royal Bank of Scotland to resolve legacy-related claims that the bank misled investors on the quality of residential MBS they purchased from RBS between 2005 and 2008.

Mortgage servicers and investors often complain about long foreclosure timelines in states with a judicial foreclosure process, but Moody’s Investors Service said the delays will only marginally increase losses on residential MBS.

There are fewer structural protections in today’s speculative-grade securities backed by subprime auto loans compared to below-investment grade issuances in the 1990s, according to an S&P Global analysis of the subprime auto loan ABS sector.