The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the SEC to review the margin requirements in Rule 4210, arguing that lenders use to-be-announced securities to hedge their interest rate exposure rather than for speculation purposes.

Small lenders may be able to avoid some of the margin requirements by diversifying the pool of broker-dealers they use for hedging.

Higher prices on mortgages for highly qualified borrowers could mean more cross-subsidy for less qualified borrowers.

The reputation of being a safe, liquid asset adds about 47 basis points to the “convenience premium” of agency MBS over investment grade bonds, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Both the new capital rule and updated eligibility requirements for GSE seller/servicers could affect participants.

Nonbank boosters continue to fear Ginnie Mae’s final capital rule may not accurately reflect the intrinsic value of MSRs. Others fear it could be too soft.

Six federal regulators tasked with overseeing risk-retention requirements for residential MBS decided to leave the standards unchanged after a two-year-long review.

The latest delay to implementation of margin requirements for agency MBS is tied to changes proposed to Rule 4210 following FINRA’s discussions with staff at the Federal Reserve and the SEC.

Don Layton said critics don’t like credit-risk transfers because they make the GSEs stronger and more durable.

The regulator of the GSEs said it met most of its goals and subgoals for the past year. And once again, FHFA announced plans to significantly grow its staff.