The odds are stacked against auto loan ABS issuers being able to significantly lower the amount of credit risk they have to retain in securitizations under the recently adopted risk-retention rule. That’s mostly because of the strict underwriting criteria for underlying loans to qualify for the exemption from the requirement, according to a new ABS research report from Moody’s Investors Service. “Under the final risk-retention rule of the Dodd-Frank Act, auto loan ABS issuers can reduce the financial interest they must retain in their transactions through a qualifying automobile loan (QAL) exemption,” explained report authors Jeffrey Hibbs, assistant vice president, and Henry Chen, an associate analyst. Issuers can put...[Includes one data chart]

Two large banks got a break recently as the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to grant penalty relief to one bank while a New York federal judge dismissed certain claims against the second bank because they were overly speculative. In the first case, the SEC cleared the way for Bank of America to close a $16.7 billion global settlement after SEC commissioners voted to waive additional sanctions that would have taken effect when the settlement is entered into court, according to a report by Bloomberg. The commission agreed...

The most significant blockages to the return of a healthy and sustainable non-agency residential MBS market in the United States are low volume issuance, regulation, weak AAA demand and missing structural reforms, according to top market professionals. “What’s holding back the recovery?” asked Rui Pereira, managing director at Fitch Ratings, during a panel discussion at a residential MBS reform symposium sponsored by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network in New York City earlier this month. “Other sectors have rebounded and we’re starting to see new asset classes emerge. And yet, we’re seeing very little momentum in our market. So the question is, what’s stalling the RMBS recovery?” In the run-up to the discussion, Pereira polled...

Banks may be forced to sell mortgage servicing rights in bulk or on a flow basis if Basel III doesn't go their way.

But did anyone really think the FHFA was going to reduce the GSE loan limits? Really…

Interactive Mortgage Advisors alone is working on $10 billion worth of deals...

The Prestwick Group and MIAC are also working on servicing deals.

Regarding Altisource Portfolio Solutions, Sterne Agee noted: “It is difficult to be optimistic from here"...

An unspecified number of counties would have been assigned lower loan limits, based on house price trends, but the FHFA weighed “other factors” and left them unchanged.

A sale of that size would greatly reduce the bank’s portfolio and would signal a strategy shift.