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Inside MBS & ABS

March 14, 2008

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Bush Task Force Calls for Overhaul of Structured Finance Ratings, Improved Investor Oversight

Credit rating services need to do a much better job in the mortgage- and asset-backed securities market, and regulators need to make sure investors are diligent in looking beyond the ratings in their assessments of complex financial instruments... Read More

Fed Liquidity Moves Generally Seen as Positives For MBS Market, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Federal Reserve moves over the past week to improve liquidity in the credit markets were enthusiastically embraced by Wall Street, and are regarded as a net benefit to an MBS market that has been starved for good news. The Fed late last week increased the amounts... Read More

Agency and Non-Agency MBS Prices Tumbled Recently And Are Expected to Stay Low Despite Actions by the Fed

The spread between agency MBS and Treasury bonds hit a staggering 23-year high last week, forcing the Federal Reserve to ride to the rescue. While the move provided a slight boost to MBS prices, analysts expect a prolonged slump for the once seemingly... Read More

Agencies Re-Tool for Jumbo Securitization Programs, GSE to Collect Higher Fees

MBS investors in coming weeks will get their first look at new products featuring jumbo loans packaged in agency securities, with yields expected to come in roughly half a point higher than comparable pools of standard agency loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie... Read More

Structured Side of the Market Won’t Recover Until Home Prices Stabilize, Debt Capital Market Pro Says

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill and other policymakers struggle to help the struggling mort-gage and credit markets, the real key to a sustainable long-term recovery may depend more on home prices stabilizing and eventually rebounding on the local... Read More

Thrifts Add to MBS Holdings During Fourth Quarter of ‘07, Biggest Gains in Non-Agency

Thrift institutions held $204.50 billion of mortgage securities in their portfolios at the end of 2007, the industry’s biggest exposure to the market since just before its meltdown in the late 1980s. Thrift MBS holdings jumped 22 percent... [Includes two charts] Read More

Countrywide’s Legal Woes Pile Up as FBI Begins Probe of Lender’s MBS Activities

Countrywide Financial’s litigation nightmare worsened as the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a probe of the ailing lender’s role in the collapse of nonprime collateral and subsequent massive losses of investors in subprime MBS. The FBI neither confirmed nor... Read More

MBS Market Continued Growing in 2007 As Focus Shifted to Agency Securities

A total of $6.635 trillion of residential mortgage-backed securities was outstanding at the end of 2007 as the market continued to grow despite slumping new production and increasing defaults. Total MBS outstanding rose 10.7 percent in... [Includes one chart] Read More

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