A commercial MBS issued in late December that received AAA ratings from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s wouldn’t have been rated higher than A1 by Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s said the $375 million RBS Commercial Funding Inc. 2013-GSP Trust lacked structural support to obtain the highest ratings. The deal was a single-asset transaction without subordinate classes to absorb expenses that the trust can’t pass along to the borrower. “In cases where a subordinate class is not present to protect highly rated senior investors, some other feature, such as a reserve fund, has been employed to mitigate the risk,” according to Daniel Rubock, a senior vice president at Moody’s. “The GSP Trust lacks any such structural mitigant.” Fitch said...

Some GSE watchers fear that new Federal Housing Finance Agency director Mel Watt might slow GSE risk sharing deals but those concerns may be unwarranted.

Fannie, Freddie and their regulator have been dogged in their pursuit of claims against banks that sold defective mortgages to the GSEs prior the financial crisis.

When it comes to doing business with Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo's volume is almost three-times that of its closest competitor, Chase Home Finance, IMF found.

One big way “that we think would help resolve some of that [QM] anxiety is [having] a right to cure,” said Pete Mills of MBA.

In a letter sent to new agency Director Mel Watt, GOP Congressmen Scott Garrett, Randy Neugebauer and John Campbell note that the 10 basis point increase proposed by Watt’s predecessor is not the only fee adjustment up for grabs.

This time around, Congress is considering tapping Fannie/Freddie g-fees as lawmakers look toward an extension of unemployment benefits, which expired on December 31.

“Transactions submitted with consumer-paid compensation more than 50 bps below [the] broker’s lender-paid tier will be rejected permanently and will not be eligible for re-submission,” Fifth Third Bank is warning.

MGIC's stock is trading near a 52-week high of $8.82 a share. The company, like the rest of the sector, is anxiously waiting on new capital-to-risk standards from FHFA.

The mergers-and-acquisitions market is expected to be robust this year thanks to falling loan production, which likely will force weaker players in the mortgage industry to align with stronger partners. But now there’s another reason why M&A activity could be brisk: new servicing rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to industry officials and Fitch Ratings, new servicing rules will drive up compliance costs for all servicers, but smaller players – including community banks and nonbanks – could see their profits erode as they increase spending to stay compliant. In a new report, Fitch writes...