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...

American International Group is working to “rebalance its exposure to residential mortgages” after the company’s sale of United Guaranty, a private mortgage insurer. Douglas Dachille, an executive vice president and CIO at AIG, detailed a number of plans late last week in a presentation to investors. He said the insurance giant is structuring direct investments in residential and commercial mortgages and other whole loans. “The team is...

A U.S. district court judge in New York has certified a class of investors to move forward with mortgage-related fraud claims they have brought against three large banks. MBS investors led by plaintiff New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund sued units of Wells Fargo that were acquired from Wachovia Capital Markets, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank that helped underwrite $7.7 billion of MBS issued by failed subprime lender NovaStar Mortgage. The plaintiffs accused...

Commercial banks and savings institutions boosted their holdings of residential MBS substantially during the third quarter, a new analysis of call-report data by Inside MBS & ABS reveals. Banks and thrifts held a record $1.732 trillion of residential MBS in their available-for-sale and held-to-maturity accounts at the end of September, a 2.9 percent increase from June, not including $46.3 billion in trading accounts. The emphasis was heavily on agency pass-through securities, with holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS surging 6.6 percent higher. Ginnie Mae saw...[Includes two data tables]

An affiliate of Verizon Communications will issue a $1.40 billion ABS backed by payment plans for cell phones, according to presale reports. It’s the second transaction of its kind from Verizon, with industry analysts projecting that issuance could increase due to widespread financing for cell phones and investor demands. Verizon Owner Trust 2016-2 received preliminary AAA ratings from Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings. It’s larger than the $1.17 billion ABS Verizon issued in July and the senior tranche on the pending issuance includes slightly less credit enhancement, indicating increased comfort among rating services. The July issuance included...

Pricing has improved sequentially with each of the three jumbo mortgage-backed securities Redwood Trust has issued this year, according to officials at the real estate investment trust. Redwood’s most recent deal, a $343.16 million jumbo MBS, was issued in October. Christopher Abate, Redwood’s president and CFO, said it’s possible that the REIT will issue another jumbo MBS this year. Marty Hughes, Redwood’s CEO, added a caveat about uncertainty in the financial markets ...

A start-up is working to allow retirees and other individual investors to buy into non-qualified mortgages, a market that so far has been dominated by hedge funds and other large institutional investors, along with occasional inclusion in non-agency mortgage-backed securities. Brad Walker, CEO of Income&, said the new platform offers an alternative to traditional fixed-income investments. He said Income& is trying to create a higher-yielding, lower-risk fixed-income instrument ...

The Structured Finance Industry Group published the fourth edition of its “RMBS 3.0 Green Papers” this week. The trade group said it will release a fifth edition of the Green Papers in the coming weeks. The latest papers address various issues in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market, including representations and warranties, the concept of a deal agent and data disclosure. Moody’s Investors Service this month withdrew its assessment of ... [Includes two briefs]

Credit Suisse issued two more series of notes this week on its mortgage-lending warehouse securitization offering, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The $1.20 billion in total new issuance from the Wall Street firm followed two notes it issued in August totaling $800 million. As with the August issuance, the new Mortgage Repurchase Agreement Financing Trust, Series 2016-3 and Series 2016-4, received A2 ratings from Moody’s. All of the deals were underwritten by Credit Suisse and HSBC Securities. The transactions are backed...

Ginnie Mae’s decision to change the pooling requirements for streamline refinance loans should boost investor confidence and slow new production of GNMA IIs, Deutsche Bank analysts said. The change could be seen as mildly more restrictive than current pooling standards, particularly having more impact on VA loans, which unlike FHA, have no seasoning requirement to qualify for streamline refinancing, said Jeana Curro, bank research analyst. Under new guidance issued last month, in order to be pooled into standard Ginnie I or Ginnie II multi-issuer pools, streamline refi loans must show...