The latest “Green Paper” from the Structured Finance Industry Group proposes that issuers of non-agency MBS improve transparency by comparing the representations and warranties on a new issuance with a set of benchmark reps and warrants. “A substantial population of investors have very clearly stated their collective belief that the current representation-and-warranty process is neither practically useful for its intended purpose, nor scalable,” according to the fourth SFIG Green Paper aimed at reviving the non-agency MBS market. Currently, non-agency MBS issuers provide...
Commercial bank and savings institution holdings of non-agency ABS fell again during the third quarter of 2016, marking the 11th consecutive quarterly decline in the industry’s investment in the sector, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data reveals. Banks and thrifts held $128.55 billion of ABS on their balance sheets at the end of September, down 1.9 percent from the previous quarter. The industry’s aggregate ABS portfolio was off 8.8 percent from the same point in 2015. The ABS market itself shrank...[Includes two data tables]