A big part of the MBS liquidity issue is caused by the Fed’s massive holdings, said Steve Abrahams, a managing director at Deutsche Bank.

Although Associated denies that any such lending discrimination took place, it agreed to commit almost $200 million in new loans to “targeted” areas...

Elsewhere, the CFPB continues to be steadfast on the August 1, 2015, effective date for its TILA/RESPA integrated disclosure rule...

Is a single GSE security years in the distance? It's hard to say. The FHFA won't offer a timeline.

The mortgage market faces a big challenge when the Federal Reserve figures out how to unload its massive $1.7 trillion portfolio of agency MBS, but anticipated widening of spreads could at least improve market liquidity. The fixed-income market has seen a sharp decline in trading volume resulting in part from regulatory issues, said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, during the group’s annual secondary market conference in New York this week. “Banks have been hoarding liquidity instead of providing it to the market,” he said. Average daily trading volume of MBS has dropped...

Officials involved in the development of the common securitization platform and the single, interchangeable MBS for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have vowed not to publicize any timetable for the project. And despite several attempts to get an answer during a panel session at this week’s secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association, they stuck to their plan. They went out of their way to stress that they haven’t forgotten about potential non-agency users sometime down the road. But that’s...

In April, the average daily trading volume in agency MBS fell to $187.8 billion, the worst reading of the year and a possible harbinger of problems to come. One market participant, speaking under the condition his name not be used, likened it to MBS buyers “going on strike.” He added: “Right now, you have an illiquid market, and that’s not a good thing.” In December of last year, the MBS trading volume was...

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee approved a Republican regulatory relief bill on a strictly partisan vote late this week, with all of the mortgage-finance provisions previously reported intact. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-PA, momentarily offered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a “get out of jail free” card, in the form of an amendment addressing capital requirements for the two government-sponsored enterprises, then withdrew it, presumably for use at a future point in time. “This is...

Industry participants, both on their own and with help from the Treasury Department, continue to work on reforms to attract investors to buy new non-agency MBS. Servicing standards will likely play a key role in the reforms, though progress has been slow. The Structured Finance Industry Group published its first RMBS 3.0 “green paper” in August 2014 with a follow-up in November. The Treasury Department has been working with industry participants toward the issuance of a benchmark non-agency MBS since at least September 2014. Analysts at Fitch Ratings stressed...

Issuance of conduit commercial MBS has been significantly lower than expected this year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Some of the expected volume appears to have shifted to single-asset deals, while a number of investor-related factors have also likely limited issuance. BAML expected $85.0 billion in conduit commercial MBS to be issued this year, a nearly 50 percent increase compared with 2014. However, just $23.0 billion in conduit commercial MBS had been issued this year through mid-May, suggesting that volume might stay level compared with 2014. A number of factors have shifted...