At the recent invitation-only Ginnie Mae “liquidity summit” in Washington, DC, some of the nation’s top regulators – including one from the Federal Reserve – expressed their concerns about the growing market share of nonbank issuers and servicers. The focus, as might be expected, centered on the capital position of nonbanks, which pales in comparison to depositories. As one attendee told Inside MBS & ABS: “It was all about bashing the nonbanks.” This attendee, who spoke under the condition his name not be used, said...
Pleas from the securitization industry for the Supreme Court of the United States to hear an appeal of Midland Funding v. Madden were rejected this week, prolonging uncertainty in sectors of the secondary market. SCOTUS may still consider the issue at some point going forward, according to analysts, providing hope for the industry. Richard Johns, executive director of the Structured Finance Industry Group, said the denial of certiorari for Madden will result in significant challenges for borrowers of credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and other financial products. “The injection of uncertainty into the credit markets will ultimately increase the cost of credit for all and directly impact the real economy,” he said. The Madden case involved...
Fitch Ratings published updated criteria this week for rating residential MBS. The new criteria include adjustments to due diligence grades relating to the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act disclosure rule and evaluations of firms serving as a deal agent. Fitch said the new criteria include a “realignment” of items that prompt C grades and D grades on mortgages reviewed by third-party due diligence firms. The changes incorporate the Structured Finance Industry Group’s recently issued RMBS 3.0 TRID Compliance Review. The rating service acknowledged...
Mortgage bankers that trade in the to-be-announced MBS market will be exempt from the initial margin requirements associated with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s revised Rule 4210, which was approved by an order of the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. Under the rule, as amended now three times by FINRA, market participants who trade TBAs will have to post an initial “maintenance” margin of 2 percent of net position size, along with an on-going variation margin, which will be subject to a $250,000 minimum transfer amount. However, the SEC order provided...
Several more court documents were released over the past week that offer additional details into the circumstances surrounding the Treasury Department’s decision to replace the quarterly dividend Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been paying in conservatorship with a net worth sweep. Industry observers say the new memos and deposition transcripts reinforce the notion that the government had been planning the sweep for a while before it was implemented in late 2012. The government-sponsored enterprises’ shareholders have been challenging...
Since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union a week ago, interest rates in the U.S. have been steadily falling, causing a rally in MBS prices. According to market watchers, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac MBS values for new securities haven’t been this good since January 2015. Meanwhile, mortgage rates touched a three-year low the past few days with some primary market lenders making new loans at 3.25 percent and no points. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press, the benchmark 10-year Treasury was yielding...
As Tim Rood of The Collingwood Group noted: An investor can buy a mortgage at 65 cents on the dollar, “notify the borrower they are eligible for a note mod down to 80 cents on the dollar and voila!”
HSBC Finance announced in June that it reached a $1.58 billion settlement on a subprime mortgage-related lawsuit filed back in 2002. The shareholder class-action lawsuit centered on activities by Household International, which was acquired by HSBC for $14.6 billion in 2003. The lawsuit claimed Household International and officials at the company made false or misleading statements about predatory lending practices, the quality of its loan portfolio, and the company’s ...
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