An affiliate of New Residential Investment is preparing to issue a $400.0 million ABS backed by servicer-advance receivables, according to S&P Global Ratings. The ABS relates to mortgages serviced by Ocwen Financial. NRZ Advance Receivables Trust 2015-ON1 Series 2017-T1 received preliminary AAA ratings from S&P. In addition to citing strengths in the structure of the ABS to support a AAA rating, S&P noted that it upgraded its servicer ratings for Ocwen from “below average” to “average” in September. Series 2017-T1 is...

Marketplace lenders could benefit from the development of special-purpose national bank charters for financial technology companies under consideration by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to ABS participants. However, the proposal has been met with strong opposition from state regulators, as it would preempt state oversight of certain nonbanks. In December, the OCC requested comments about a potential special-purpose national bank charter for so-called fintech companies, including marketplace lenders. The Structured Finance Industry Group endorsed...

The subprime auto lending market is stable and the underwriting is strong, but delinquencies are up, according to credit bureau experts speaking at the American Financial Services Association’s vehicle financing conference. The auto financing industry is coming off another record year of sales, according to Chris Stinebert, president and CEO of AFSA. He added that it’s important for credit reporting agencies to set the record straight on the health of the subprime auto finance market. “The fact is...

A soft fourth quarter resulted in a modest uptick in non-mortgage ABS in 2016, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. A few sectors posted solid gains, however. The market produced $174.71 billion of new ABS last year, up just 0.6 percent from the total for 2015. New issuance turned decidedly soft in the fourth quarter with only $34.24 billion in volume. That was down 36.7 percent from the previous period and represented the second-lowest quarterly output since the third quarter of 2012. All the major components of the ABS market saw...[Includes two data tables]

Moody’s Investors Service agreed to a $863.79 million settlement with the Department of Justice, 21 states and Washington, DC, late last week. The settlement focused on rating activities between 2004 and 2010 involving residential MBS and collateralized debt obligations. According to the settlement, Moody’s used an internal ratings model for most tranches of certain residential MBS that was more lenient than its published guidelines, allowing for lower credit enhancement levels than what the published guidelines required. The internal model was based...

With financial markets awaiting, with some uncertainty, the public policy positions of the incoming Trump administration and the new Congress, industry analysts say ABS investors can expect most sectors to turn in stable performances in 2017. “As we look back on 2016 and consider the 2017 global structured finance outlook, most markets and their credit conditions seem favorable, and in some cases, even ideal. However, 2017 has many unknowns, especially the specific policies and priorities that will be adopted by the new U.S. administration,” said analysts with S&P Global Ratings in a recent outlook report. “Some would suggest government-sponsored enterprise privatization is possible, risk retention could be revised, and an appropriate/globally consistent capital treatment for structured finance products could be approved.” Further, “For the most part, we expect...

Another record year for Ginnie Mae MBS issuance plus strong volume in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs helped push total securitization of residential mortgages and non-mortgage ABS to a three-year high of $1.698 trillion in 2016. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis shows that total MBS and ABS issuance – not including commercial MBS – was up 13.3 percent from 2015. Agency production of single-family MBS totaled $1.481 trillion in 2016, up 17.5 percent from the previous year. Over a third of that came from Ginnie, which set a new annual record with $507.5 billion in single-family MBS issuance. The non-agency MBS market was...[Includes three data tables]

Monex Deposit Company issued a $100.0 million ABS backed by loans on silver and other coins in late December, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings. The deal received a AA rating, with the rating service noting concerns about the volatility of silver prices and regulatory issues. MDC is a precious-metals dealer established in 1987 whose predecessor dates back to 1967. Scala Funding Company 2016-1 consists of 1,854 accounts with an average balance of $51,760. The loans backing the ABS are offered...

With structured finance performance having peaked for many sectors, analysts at Fitch Rating and S&P Global Ratings anticipate some modest asset-level deterioration in 2017 – most notably in both prime and subprime auto ABS. On the other hand, they expect relatively stable performance from credit card ABS. “Both prime and subprime auto ABS loss rates could be...

Fitch Ratings edged out Standard & Poor’s as the most active rating services in the non-mortgage ABS market during the first nine months of 2016, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking reveals. Fitch also was the top rating service in the more subdued non-agency MBS market. The company rated some $10.80 billion of non-agency MBS, or 64.8 percent of the total market, which includes a substantial volume of unrated private deals. DBRS (37.2 percent market share) and Moody’s Investors Service (34.5 percent) were...[Includes two data tables]