The recent rancorous debate over raising the debt ceiling brings little hope of relief from the overwhelming amount of regulation coming down the pike. Analysts say the uncertainty has made it more difficult to quantify risks for MBS and other securitized products. Analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch said the outcome of the debate was far worse than expected, forcing them to temper their optimism for securitized products. Instead, they are calling for a more neutral exposure. The pragmatism we thought we would see never really emerged, said Chris Flanagan, an analyst with the firm. Instead ...
Two Harbors Investment Corp. said this week it is impressed with the investment opportunities in the non-agency MBS sector, particularly over the next year and beyond and is pushing forward with its plans to begin a securitization program. Thomas Siering, president and CEO of the New York-based real estate investment trust, said during a conference call to discuss the firms second quarter earnings that despite the challenging non-agency environment in June, there is tremendous opportunity to profit from non-agency MBS issuance throughout the rest of this year into 2012. The recent pullback in the non-agency market has created...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency said last week to expect further litigation in its ongoing efforts to recover losses suffered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in connection to the two GSEs investments in non-agency securities.Last week, the Finance Agency filed suit against UBS Americas Inc. and various related entities alleging misstatements and omissions of non-agency MBS purchased by Fannie and Freddie.
Trustees of residential MBS should consider themselves on notice that they need to be much more attentive and aggressive in meeting their obligations under the pooling and servicing agreements governing MBS trusts, according to a trade group representing investors. Last week, the Association of Mortgage Investors sent letters to several major MBS trustees including JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, US Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of New York remind-ing them of their legal obligations to RMBS certificate holders. The AMI letter also informed trustees that ...
Credit rating agencies and government regulators are making wholesale changes to the way they come up with and use credit ratings in order to prevent a repeat of the financial meltdown, witnesses at a hearing of the House Committee on Financial Services said. While much has changed with regard to credit ratings and credit rating agencies over the course of the past several years, our fundamental mission remains the same: to provide the market with independent benchmarks about the creditworthiness of ...
Regardless of whether the White House and Congress come to a debt ceiling deal before the fast approaching Aug. 2 deadline, agency MBS are in for a rough ride, experts say. Last week, Moodys Investors Service and Standard & Poors lit a fire under the debt talks and sparked widespread consternation throughout the MBS arena when they announced that each may cut the U.S. credit rating two double-A within three months if there isnt a credible agreement to address the U.S. debt burden. Consequently, Moodys placed on review for possible downgrade ...
Fannie Mae this week released a revised prospectus for its single-family MBS program that updates language on non-standard collection options such as biweekly payment plans, certain hybrid ARM pools and loan eligibility. The government-sponsored enterprise also expanded its discussion of representations and warranties provisions affecting its single-family MBS. In addition to requiring sellers to repurchase mortgages that breach the reps and warranties, Fannie said it is important for investors to consider that there are other mandatory and optional cases where loans may be ...
A coalition of six Federal Home Loan Banks has gone to court seeking formal standing as investors in the proposed $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over mortgage-backed securities even as court papers reveal investors could be owed a sum three times greater than the current BofA proposal.The Federal Home Loan Banks of Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Seattle together own certificates in 73 of the trusts that are part of the proposed settlement for which they paid more than $8.8 billion.
California continues to be the top source of new single-family mortgages for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac even as Fannie remains the dominant GSE in terms of production through the first half of the year, according to an upcoming special report, GSE Market Profile: First Half 2011 by Inside Mortgage Finance Publications.
Most of the top mortgage originators of agency-eligible home loans posted significant declines in MBS issuance during the second quarter, but a handful of firms bucked the current, according to a new ranking and analysis based on the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. Overall agency MBS production declined 33.8 percent from the first quarter to the second, hitting its lowest three-month volume since the end of 2008. Through the midway point in 2011, single-family mortgage securitization by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae was off ... [includes two data charts]