Investors might be seeing better performance from the credit rating agencies these days. In two new reports, the Securities and Exchange Commission says ratings firms are more compliant and are utilizing information technology to a greater extent, all while remaining competitive, especially some of the smaller ones.
Syncora Guarantee, Inc., an insurer of structured-finance transactions, has settled a long-running dispute with Greenpoint Mortgage Funding over hundreds of millions of dollars in losses on bundles of soured home-equity mortgages held in trust.
Trading MBS will be slightly less expensive this year as the Fixed Income Clearing Corp. is preparing to eliminate a fee it imposed to help pay for technology upgrades. The fee applied to FICC members and generally ranged from $1,000 per month to $20,000 per month based on trading activity.
Progressives are worried that in 2019 a new Federal Housing Finance Agency director will takeover, undoing much of what they like about the current system…
Federal regulators’ efforts to simplify bank capital requirements relating to mortgage servicing rights don’t go far enough, according to industry participants. The institutions that the proposal is aimed at want even less stringent capital requirements, and large banks want to be included in the loosening. In October, federal banking regulators proposed simplified capital treatment for various assets, including mortgage servicing assets. The proposal would largely apply to banks with ...
Mortgage and commercial real estate investment trusts stand to benefit from a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that offers individuals a 20 percent deduction for REIT dividends. Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said the deduction applies to “qualified business income,” which includes qualified dividends paid by REITs. The tax reform bill was signed into law on Dec. 22, 2017. Previously, non-capital gains dividends from a REIT were taxed as ...
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