The latest “Green Paper” from the Structured Finance Industry Group proposes that issuers of non-agency MBS improve transparency by comparing the representations and warranties on a new issuance with a set of benchmark reps and warrants. “A substantial population of investors have very clearly stated their collective belief that the current representation-and-warranty process is neither practically useful for its intended purpose, nor scalable,” according to the fourth SFIG Green Paper aimed at reviving the non-agency MBS market. Currently, non-agency MBS issuers provide...

Commercial bank and savings institution holdings of non-agency ABS fell again during the third quarter of 2016, marking the 11th consecutive quarterly decline in the industry’s investment in the sector, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data reveals. Banks and thrifts held $128.55 billion of ABS on their balance sheets at the end of September, down 1.9 percent from the previous quarter. The industry’s aggregate ABS portfolio was off 8.8 percent from the same point in 2015. The ABS market itself shrank...[Includes two data tables]

A U.S. district court judge in New York has certified a class of investors to move forward with mortgage-related fraud claims they have brought against three large banks. MBS investors led by plaintiff New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund sued units of Wells Fargo that were acquired from Wachovia Capital Markets, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank that helped underwrite $7.7 billion of MBS issued by failed subprime lender NovaStar Mortgage. The plaintiffs accused...

An increase in interest rates could take place “relatively soon,” if incoming economic data warrant it, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told members of Congress last week. Then again, maybe not. The Fed has held off...

New derivative rules requiring daily posting of two-way variation margin on affected derivatives could create uncertainties for structured finance transactions, warned Fitch Ratings in a recent analysis. U.S. banking regulators and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have adopted the uncleared swap margin rules for covered swap entities. Specifically, registered swap dealers and all end users of derivative contracts must comply with margin collection, posting, segregation, and documentation requirements by March 1, 2017. New swaps executed after the 2017 effective date would...

Fairholme Funds officials this week continued to press their case for restoring shareholder rights for private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expressing hope that the incoming Trump administration will be friendlier to their cause. In Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al, the plaintiffs argue that the net worth sweep imposed by the Treasury Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency was illegal and that the two government-sponsored enterprises were not in a “death spiral” at the time of the bailout as the government claims. During a conference call this week, Fairholme CEO Bruce Berkowitz said...

The settlement noted that the subprime MBS from ResCap included mortgages with looser underwriting standards than the underwriting guidelines that were disclosed to MBS investors.

The MBA is considering its options to appeal the FTC's decision regarding the trade group's request for a mortgage-servicing exemption under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The CFPB’s appeal asserts that the court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the agency’s structure ought to be reconsidered because it “sets up what may be the most important separation-of-powers case in a generation.”

Freddie Mac is set to issue a $459.92 million Whole Loan Securities transaction, according to a presale report from Moody’s Investors Service. The firm didn’t rate the senior tranche of the deal but did place a Baa1 rating on a mezzanine tranche of Freddie Mac Whole Loan Securities 2016-SC02. The government-sponsored enterprise priced the latest WLS transaction this week, with the deal expected to close next week. “We are pleased with the pricing levels and depth of investor participation in the WLS program,” said Kevin Palmer, senior vice president of credit risk transfer at Freddie. “We look forward to continued issuance in 2017.” Freddie has issued...