The Securities and Exchange Commission this week unanimously approved a final rule covering registration and disclosures for asset-backed securities, including new non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The so-called “Reg AB2” measure requires significant changes for new non-agency MBS, including loan-level disclosures and a three-day waiting period before issuing new deals. “The SEC must protect investors in asset-backed securities just as it does investors in any other security ...
Lowering the government-sponsored enterprises’ loan limits is one of the main goals for firms involved in the non-agency market but the effort lacks broad support in the mortgage industry, let alone in Congress. Among those submitting comments to the Treasury Department this month regarding how to increase non-agency activity, the American Bankers Association was one of the biggest supporters of decreased loan limits for the GSEs. The conforming loan limit is at $417,000 and ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released an updated bulletin regarding servicing transfers due to continued concerns about how troubled borrowers fare when servicing moves from one firm to another. “In particular, CFPB examiners will carefully scrutinize transfers of loans with pending loss mitigation applications or approved trial and permanent modification plans,” the regulator said. “Examples of good practices by servicers include flagging those loans and ...
Bank of America last week agreed to a record settlement with the Department of Justice and others, largely involving non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued from 2003 through 2008. Officials at the DOJ said the settlement focused on disclosures provided by BofA and its affiliates, including Countrywide Financial, First Franklin and Merrill Lynch, to investors in the bonds. “It’s kind of like going to your neighborhood grocery store to buy milk advertised as fresh, only to discover that ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission this week approved a final rule with new requirements for rating services and due diligence providers. The rule was approved on a 3-2 vote, with the SEC’s two Republican-appointed commissioners chafing at standards required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Among other provisions, the SEC is requiring nationally recognized statistical rating organizations to strengthen their internal controls, establish new procedures designed to protect the integrity of rating methods ...
Goldman Sachs agreed to a settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency last week to resolve claims about non-agency mortgage-backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the financial crisis. The FHFA said the settlement will cost Goldman $1.20 billion and the firm will buyback non-agency MBS from the government-sponsored enterprises. The original balance of the securities owned by Fannie and Freddie that Goldman will buyback is ... [Includes five briefs]
Roughly $1 billion in damages will flow through to the FHA and Ginnie Mae from Bank of America’s record $16.65 billion global mortgage-backed securities settlement with the Department of Justice. Although most of the DOJ’s case centered around faulty private-label MBS that BofA and its forbears (namely Countrywide and Merrill Lynch) underwrote during the housing boom, a small piece of the settlement is tied to servicing chores that the bank did for Ginnie Mae. And apparently, BofA didn’t do a very good job of servicing the underlying product. The bank took over as the subservicer on roughly $26.2 billion in mortgage servicing rights that once belonged to Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, a large nonbank based in Ocala, FL. When TBW went bust in the second half of 2009, BofA was given the subservicing contract. “BofA serviced the loans for us,” said Ginnie Mae president Ted Tozer. “And they did a ...
Due diligence providers that work on MBS and ABS also will have to provide certifications to the rating services which will be disclosed on each rating issued.
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