Commercial banks and thrifts reported another decline in their ABS holdings during the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data. In aggregate, banks and thrifts held $159.22 billion of ABS in their held-to-maturity and available-for-sale retained portfolios as of the end of last year. That was the industry’s lowest level of ABS investment since the middle of 2012, and it represented a 3.1 percent drop from a revised third-quarter total of $164.35 billion. The biggest component in the aggregate portfolio was...[Includes two data charts]
The dispute around an $8.5 billion settlement between Bank of America and non-agency MBS investors may be at an end after a New York state appeals court signed off on the deal. The agreement would mean a quick end to a lengthy legal battle over a settlement that was first announced on June 28, 2011. It also means the agreement could become the template for all representations-and-warranties settlements with large institutional investors, analysts said. BofA agreed...
Over a fifth of the loans securitized last year by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae do not meet one of the key criteria of the qualified-mortgage standard that came into effect in January 2014, and instead rely on an exemption for agency loans. During 2014, the three agencies securitized $198.3 billion of home loans with debt-to-income ratios exceeding 43.0 percent, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of loan-level disclosure data. That represented 21.5 percent of total MBS issuance by Ginnie and the two government-sponsored enterprises. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requires...
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