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 and thrifts held a combined $1.535 trillion of residential MBS at the end of September, a modest 0.6 percent increase from the previous quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of bank call reports. Bank MBS holdings had spiked higher in the first quarter of this year, only to fall back in the following period. Compared to a year ago, the industry’s aggregate MBS portfolio was up 1.4 percent. Bank and thrift MBS holdings first crossed...[Includes two data charts]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced this week that it selected three firms to participate in a pilot project to expand agency MBS sellers beyond the large primary dealers that work with the NY Fed. The pilot will last for about one year and the firms will participate as counterparties on the Open Market Trading Desk along with primary dealers in the Desk’s agency MBS operations. Brean Capital, Loop Capital Markets and Mischler Financial Group were selected to participate in the Mortgage Operations Counterparty Pilot Program, which was announced in August. The NY Fed didn’t disclose the number of firms that applied for the pilot but noted that the intent was always to work with a small number of firms to speed the pilot and keep costs low for the NY Fed. The pilot program participants are set...

The benchmark non-agency mortgage-backed security that the Treasury Department is organizing will vary significantly from recent non-agency MBS. Michael Stegman, counselor on housing finance policy to the Treasury, revealed new details about the planned transaction last week in New York City at the Private-Label RMBS Symposium hosted by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network. Stegman said the benchmark non-agency MBS will ideally be ...

As leading figures in the secondary market continue their efforts to reboot the non-agency mortgage-backed securities sector, attracting private capital remains the single most critical factor in the equation. However, during a recent industry conference, institutional investors made it clear that in order for them to return, the market’s infrastructure will need to provide stronger protections, enhanced transparency and an improved ability to respond when a deal starts to go sour ...

The latest “green papers” in the Structured Finance Industry Group’s RMBS 3.0 standards-setting project focus on due-diligence disclosures for investors in non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The SFIG noted that potential investors in non-agency MBS are particularly interested in findings conducted by third-party due-diligence firms before a security is issued. The SFIG proposed a model form that would disclose an “extract” of due-diligence findings to investors ...

The economic value of the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage legacy portfolio fell to negative $0.9 billion in fiscal 2014 due mainly to volatility in long-term house prices and interest rates, according to the latest independent actuarial report on the health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The latest result was a significant improvement from FY 2012, when the fund stood at negative $2.8 billion. In fiscal 2013, the HECM portfolio’s economic value of positive $6.5 billion appeared to be a whopping change from the previous year but that amount reflected a $4.6 billion cash infusion from the forward program and from the $1.7 billion mandatory appropriation, the report clarified. The report also showed a corresponding decline in the HECM capital ratio to negative 1.20 percent. Actuarial projections for fiscal 2015 place the HECM portfolio’s economic value at negative $1.1 billion. The fund’s capital resources for ...

Thousands of military veterans in high-cost areas may be deprived of VA’s home-loan guarantee benefits unless Congress extends the current VA loan limits before the end of the year. Those loan limits expire on Dec. 31, 2014. The VA loan limits are based on median home values estimated by the FHA, providing loans up to 125 percent of local area median price. The program does not set a cap on how much a veteran can borrow to finance a home purchase but it does limit the maximum amount it can guarantee to 25 percent of the current loan limit. Veteran and industry groups are urging Congress to make the VA limits permanent. A VA spokesperson said the agency was not asked for a position on the issue since Congress did not put forward any bill in any of the hearings this year. “But as a general rule, VA wants to maximize the opportunities ...

Ginnie Mae is seeking comment on several proposed data collections, including those that would strengthen the agency’s ability to monitor participants in its mortgage-backed securities programs. Due to its growing concern over the influx of non-depository issuers into the single-family MBS program, Ginnie has proposed to collect more loan-level data to supplement the information already being collected and reported on a monthly basis. The proposed data collection consists of bankruptcy-related information (action type, case identifier, chapter type, bar date) as well as borrower-related information (borrower bankruptcy indicator, classification type, total mortgaged properties, counseling initiated indicator and credit score date). Other proposed new data include document custodian ID, type of insurance claim coverage, investor unpaid principal balance (UPB), adjustment to ...

Essent EVP to Retire in March. Adolfo Marzol, Essent Guaranty’s executive vice president, will step down, effective March 31, 2015, after five years with the company. VA Hybrid Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Pooling Eligibility. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently expanded the type of loans it will guarantee to include 7/1 and 10/1 hybrid ARMs. While Ginnie Mae’s Mortgage-Backed Securities Guide does not bar the inclusion of hybrid ARMs in Ginnie MBS, GinnieNET is not currently able to process these loans for pool processing. GinnieNET is being updated in order to accommodate VA 7/1 and 10/1 hybrid ARM pooling. Effective with issuances dated on or after Dec. 1, 2014, VA 7/1 and 10/1 hybrid ARMs will be eligible for pooling. CFPB Publishes Revised List of Rural and Underserved Counties. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published its 2015 list of ...