When the Federal Reserve hiked short-term rates back in mid-December, mortgage rates were expected to increase as well and keep heading north in the new year. But thanks to deep concerns about economic growth in China – not to mention plunging oil prices – all bets are now off. This past week, the price on the benchmark Fannie Mae 3.5 percent security increased by 44 basis points, according to figures compiled by MBS Quoteline. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press ...

Industry analysts project that the volume of collateralized loan obligations issued this year will decline compared with 2015 because of regulatory and other factors. Among projections for various MBS and ABS asset types by Standard & Poor’s, CLOs are the only securities expected to see a decline in volume in 2016 compared with last year. CLOs differ from many other structured finance products in that they involve a special purpose issuer that acquires a portfolio of commercial loans ...

Entities growing their purchase mortgage and MBS portfolios may be affected by a new accounting model for recognizing credit impairment, the second leg of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s long-term financial instruments project. The Mortgage Bankers Association expects a release date either towards the end of the first quarter of 2016 or in the second quarter, barring unforeseen changes. “I have not seen transition rules exposed yet, but I suspect that there will be ...

Interest in the single-family rental market has increased since being introduced as a viable asset classes several years ago, but some say further growth may depend on the sector’s ability to significantly improve operating efficiencies. There have been 27 single-family rental securitizations to date. In 2015, issuance of single-family rental deals was $6.72 billion, up from $6.61 billion a year earlier, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings. Although capital expenses were higher than ...

A new statutory exemption for private resales of ABS and MBS imposes certain requirements that issuers may find difficult to meet, according to securities compliance experts. The provision is part of the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act” (FAST Act), which President Obama signed on Dec. 4, 2015. Although aimed primarily at authorizing spending on highway and transit projects, the new law includes several provisions intended, among other things, to facilitate ...

Legacy non-agency MBS issued before the financial market collapse in 2008 continue to spawn millions in lawsuits. In the Southern District of New York, Commerzbank AG, as an RMBS investor, recently sued Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Wells Fargo and the Bank of New York Mellon in their capacities as MBS trustees on deals that inflicted approximately $1.88 billion in losses on the German bank. Commerzbank claimed it suffered $750 million in losses related to BNYM’s alleged failures ...

Issuers of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities pushed a record $435.80 billion of government-insured loans through the program during 2015, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis and ranking. Last year’s total Ginnie MBS issuance topped the previous record of $429.50 billion issued during 2009. The $435.80 billion total for 2015 includes securitization of FHA home-equity conversion mortgages and other single-family loans guaranteed by FHA, the VA, and the Department of Agriculture rural housing program from Ginnie pool-level MBS data that are not truncated. Production in 2015 hit its high-water mark in the third quarter with $128.23 billion in issuance, and then fell 18.0 percent in the final three months of the year. Purchase mortgages continued to account for most Ginnie business in 2015, 58.0 percent of the agency’s forward-mortgage securitizations. But a huge factor in the ... [ Charts ]

The first rated securitization backed by nonperforming Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans contains strong, credit-positive features that outweigh the credit risk associated with nonperforming loans, according to a Moody’s Investors Service analysis. The effect of some of these positive features on the performance of Nationstar HECM Loan Trust 2015-2, however, depends on whether Nationstar Mortgage remains as servicer for the transaction, said the rating agency. Nationstar has a servicer rating of B2/Stable from Moody’s and is also the transaction’s sponsor. Nationstar issued NHLT 2015-2 in November 2015 and by the end of December, the first remittance report showed strong initial performance. Credit enhancement to the Aaa (sf)-rated notes increased by 1.69 percent in the first month of operations, Moody’s noted. “As long as Nationstar continues to be the ...

The Department of Justice announced in December that a structured finance supervisor at RBS Securities pleaded guilty to participating in a multi-million dollar securities fraud scheme and is cooperating with the government’s ongoing investigation. Adam Siegel was co-head of U.S. ABS, MBS and commercial MBS trading at RBS between 2008 and 2014. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Connecticut said Siegel admitted that he and others conspired to increase RBS’s profits on trades of residential MBS and collateralized loan obligations at the expense of customers. “His crime included...

A case in bankruptcy court regarding the priority of payment provisions for collateralized debt obligations could have broad ramifications for derivatives transactions at the heart of the structured finance industry, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group and other industry groups. In late December, SFIG filed an amicus brief in Lehman Brothers Special Financing v. Bank of America, which is being heard in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association filed a separate brief, making points similar to those raised by SFIG. LBSF is suing...