Although the big three rating agencies have had a strong hold on rating commercial MBS for most institutional investors, the tides may be changing as bond buyers begin to relax their guidelines. Some of the largest bond buyers have been vocalizing frustration that the big three ratings firms, Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poors and Fitch Ratings, are being hired less, resulting in fewer bond offerings to choose from, according to a recent Bloomberg article. That’s good news for smaller ratings agencies like Kroll Bond and Morningstar. “We have proven...
From the beginning of 2014 through the end of 1Q15, roughly 16 percent of the loans securitized by Fannie and Freddie had DTI ratios exceeding 43 percent...
The MBA took particular aim at the proposed enhanced standards for large nonbank servicers, noting that such firms are already subject to extensive regulation from the GSEs and others.
Franklin Codel of Wells Fargo noted that while it’s a challenging time in the economy and for lenders, many agree that quality and clarity of who owns the risk matters.
The sale of RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing has fallen apart with the bidder walking away from the table, according to industry advisors close to the transaction. Sources indicate that Tavistock Group, the owner of the nation’s 24th largest servicer, still has an interest in finding a buyer for the servicer/lender, but for now no deal is imminent. Tavistock bills itself as an international private-equity firm with a strong interest in finance, real estate and other sectors. The firm is headquartered in the Bahamas. An advisor close to the transaction declined...
Sometimes lost in the hoopla over the rising nonbank share of mortgage servicing is that banks have fallen in and out of love with the servicing market for decades.