The Financial Stability Oversight Council issued a warning this week regarding the prolonged period of low interest rates, singling out real estate investment trusts that invest in agency mortgage-backed securities. “Agency REITs, a sector that how grown considerably in recent years, are highly exposed to a rise in interest rates,” said Trent Reasons, a senior policy advisor at the Treasury Department. An analysis of 16 REITs by Inside MBS & ABS, an affiliated publication, determined...

Ginnie Mae is seeking comment from Wall Street dealers on whether the agency should continue maintaining two separate MBS programs, or consolidate them and create a third Ginnie Mae security. The agency has reportedly sent questionnaires to dealers seeking their opinion on a number of options, including combining the lower volume Ginnie Mae I MBS program with the far busier Ginnie Mae II program and its likely impact on liquidity, issuance and market share. A Bloomberg report said...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is moving forward with its search to find a CEO to run the new common mortgage securitization platform that will one day be shared by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and, potentially, other issuers. But it’s anybody’s guess how much the regulator is willing to pay to get a top-flight candidate, according to industry observers. At least two individuals recently were approached about the job, according to these observers. Funding for the project will presumably come...

Issuers of non-agency MBS won two key court battles against federal agencies because the regulators’ suits to recover losses suffered by failed institutions came too late. Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rejected all claims the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. brought against Countrywide Financial related to 10 MBS certificates sold to the failed Colonial Bank. “All of the FDIC’s claims are time-barred,” the court said. In FDIC v. Countrywide, the court said...

In a move designed to allow qualifying members to sell fixed-rate, conforming mortgage loans into the secondary market, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas announced last week it has joined the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program and is now offering the MPF Xtra product. Under the MPF Xtra program, loans are sold through the FHLBank of Chicago to Fannie Mae as a third-party investor.

UBS Americas failed in its bid to shut down a lawsuit brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in connection with non-agency mortgage-backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while in another case three former Freddie executives lost their own bid to dismiss a Securities and Exchange Commission securities fraud case against them. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a lower court’s ruling that denied UBS’ motion to dismiss the FHFA’s suit as time barred. In the summer of 2011, the FHFA filed 18 lawsuits in Manhattan federal court against UBS and other big banks on behalf of the GSEs, alleging violations of the federal Securities Act of 1933 for approximately $200 billion in non-agency MBS sold to Fannie and Freddie.

The new central counterparty for MBS trades is having a difficult time delivering results and is, in fact, experiencing a drawback because of stringent margin rules as well as other internal issues, according to financial advisory firm NewOak Capital Advisors. The regulated multilateral central counterparty trading platform for executing to-be-announced agency MBS is not at full power because most TBA participants are not doing what they are supposed to, observed Ron D’Vari, chief executive officer and co-founder of NewOak. “The key drawbacks are...

Ginnie Mae issuance fell in the first quarter of 2013 but was easily offset by significant gains from a year ago, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. Mortgage-backed securities production at the government facility dropped 5.1 percent to $104.1 billion in the first quarter but increased 28.6 percent year-over-year , which was more than enough for an offset. The securities were backed mostly by FHA and VA loans with a combined total of $99.33 billion. Federally guaranteed rural housing loans totaling $4.84 billion were also in the mix. Wells Fargo and Chase Home Finance led the Ginnie Mae market with a combined ... [1 chart]

The Treasury Market Practices Group announced last week that a margining recommendation for agency MBS initially set to be implemented in June will be delayed until the end of 2013. The provisions apply to primary dealers working with four broad categories of forward-settling agency MBS transactions as part of an effort to manage counterparty exposures. The implementation date was delayed in response to concerns from market participants. Timothy Cameron, managing director and head of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s asset management group, said buy-side participants need to negotiate agreements for each of their accounts, which can include thousands of documents. “It is clear many market participants will not be able...

The International Accounting Standards Board has proposed an accounting treatment that would force holders of all but the most senior tranche of an MBS to account for those assets at fair value through net income – something that has the Mortgage Bankers Association expressing concern. The MBA generally supports the introduction of fair value through an “other comprehensive income” (OCI) classification for financial assets held within a business model in which assets are managed both in order to collect contractual cash flows and for possible sale, according to James Gross, vice president of financial accounting and public policy for the trade group. However, the MBA has...