The CMBS market is well known for rating shopping, where issuers will invite up to six CRAs to conduct a preliminary review of an initial asset pool.

Fitch warned that about 25 percent of the collateral received C or D grades for material violations or lack of documentation.

The top contributor to the new jumbo MBS from FirstKey is CMG Financial with a 13.8 percent share. Cornerstone, Bank of Internet and Impac also provided product.

Republicans have never been big fans of the GSEs and there’s plenty of Democrats who aren’t so sure about the government “guaranty” as well...

According to Citadel’s website, it offers five different loan matrices, which have credit grades ranging from A down to C.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to trim their retained holdings of MBS and unsecuritized mortgages in keeping with their conservatorship mandate as the two government-sponsored enterprises each posted a profit during the third quarter of 2014. The two GSEs ended September with a combined $851.71 billion in mortgage-related holdings, down 2.4 percent from the previous quarter. Compared to a year ago, their combined mortgage portfolio was down 16.0 percent and down 46.5 percent from the $1.592 trillion the two firms held in the fourth quarter of 2008 shortly after being placed in government conservatorship. One of the conditions of the conservatorship the GSEs entered six years ago was...[Includes one data chart]

And there could be some good news on lower LLPAs. Fannie said that come May 2015, it will change how it treats loans where there are two or more borrowers...

The biggest decline has been in non-agency MBS holdings, mostly Alt A and subprime MBS that have been subject to fast liquidation rates.

The new documentation was released in conjunction with a non-agency RMBS reform symposium held in New York by SFIG and Information Management Network.

Although residential lenders are coming off a better than expected production quarter – and enjoying a decent last three months of the year – analysts and investors seem undecided on whether there’s opportunity in the market or it’s time to stay on the sidelines. Several high profile publicly traded shops that are considered “high touch” specialists – Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment – continue to trade at steep discounts to their 52-week highs with all three facing possible class-action lawsuits from angry investors who’ve seen billions of dollars in stock equity evaporate over the past year. And then there’s...