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.

Since the collapse of the non-agency market back in 2008, Fannie and Freddie have generally accounted for over 70 percent of new MBS production.

However, non-agency MBS issuers won a slight concession on the matter: the SEC had initially proposed a five-day waiting period.

Barclays said few loans in vintage non-agency MBS were exposed to the recent earthquake.

Indirectly, Bill Erbey controls about 5.9 million shares of Altisource through a limited liability company called Salt Pond Holdings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed controversial changes that would place greater burdens on MBS issuers and potentially increase privacy concerns for borrowers.

According to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database, the original unpaid principal balance of the PLS deals in question was almost $40 billion.

A fair question to ask is this: If DOJ goes after Mozilo, why not go after the owners of Ameriquest/Argent which created so much of the faulty subprime product that Greenwich securitized?

In its statement announcing the settlement, BofA stressed, “The claims relate primarily to conduct that occurred at Countrywide and Merrill Lynch prior to Bank of America's acquisition of those entities.”

Among the banks reporting that the rules had no effect on their approval rates, half indicated that lending policies would have been tighter without the safe harbor for mortgages that pass the GSEs’ automated underwriting models.