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Inside MBS & ABS

February 17, 2017

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Banks Up Their Holdings of Agency MBS During 4Q16 With Buying Spree in Ginnie Securities

Banks and savings institutions maintained their healthy appetite for agency single-family MBS during the fourth quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. Banks and thrifts held a record $1.254 trillion of agency MBS, up 2.2 percent from the end of the third quarter and an increase of 12.4 percent from a year ago. The biggest gains were in holdings of Ginnie Mae MBS, which also happen to be the fastest-growing component of the agency securities market. Bank and thrift holdings of Ginnie pass-throughs jumped...[Includes two data tables] Read More

OCC’s Denial of Favorable Capital Treatment for Chase Portfolio Risk-Transfer MBS May Deter Others

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s denial of favorable capital treatment to a non-agency MBS issued by JPMorgan Chase last year could hinder efforts aimed at convincing banks to return to the non-agency MBS market, according to industry analysts. JPMorgan Chase issued two unique non-agency MBS last year with a total unpaid principal balance of $4.53 billion. The so-called portfolio risk-transfer deals accounted for a whopping 48.6 percent of the prime non-agency MBS issued in 2016. Chase packaged... Read More

New Nonprime MBS from Invictus Illustrates How Rating Services Differ on AAA Ratings

Rating services appear to be taking differing approaches to rating nonprime MBS backed by new originations. The first nonprime MBS from an affiliate of Invictus Capital Partners received preliminary AAA ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Morningstar Credit Ratings and S&P Global Ratings. Those three firms did not rate... Read More

Blackstone’s Next Mortgage Conquest: Fix-and- Flip Lenders That Could Lead to Securitization

Wall Street giant The Blackstone Group this week revealed its investment in “fix and flip” lenders B2R Finance, Charlotte, and Jordan Capital Finance, Chicago, spurring talk that eventually the firm may enter the fledgling nonprime residential market. One nonprime executive, requesting anonymity, told Inside MBS & ABS that he has had several discussions with Blackstone-related companies about partnering with his shop. Issuing MBS is one of the company’s goals, he said, adding: “They want in.” Over the past three years, Blackstone has made... Read More

Freddie Reports $4.9 Billion in Net Income for 4Q16 Thanks in Part to Assist from Rising Interest Rates

Freddie Mac reported a net income of $4.85 billion in the fourth quarter, more than double its earnings from the previous quarter and lifting its full-year income to $7.82 billion. The government-sponsored enterprise released its earnings this week, posting one of its best profits ever in the fourth quarter. Net income for the quarter was fueled in part by gains on derivatives which amounted to $6.38 billion. “Interest rates went up an unusually large amount in the fourth quarter, therefore you saw an unusually large gain in the accounting,” Freddie CEO Donald Layton told Inside MBS & ABS. Freddie also reported... Read More

Key Players in GSE Reform: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Commerce Chief Wilbur Ross, Craig Phillips and Others

Now that investment banker Steven Mnuchin has been installed as the Treasury secretary, work can begin on finding a solution to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government guarantors that serve as the linchpin to housing and mortgage markets. For the most part, senior mortgage officials who have been in the business for a decade or more applauded President Trump’s choice of Mnuchin, pointing to his days as the head of MBS trading at Goldman Sachs & Co. “At the very least, this is... Read More

Replacing DFA Mortgage Rules Without Replacing Them Threatens RMBS Credit Quality, Moody’s Says

Weighing in on President Trump’s recent executive order related to the Dodd-Frank Act, analysts at Moody’s Investors Service said ditching the major mortgage regulations promulgated under the law would be negative for residential MBS unless it’s done carefully. “Any significant repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act’s mortgage-related provisions without effective alternatives would weaken residential RMBS credit quality because these provisions have strengthened the credit quality of mortgage originations, improved servicing practices and bolstered the credit integrity of RMBS structures,” the analysts said in a new report issued earlier this week. Their report then detailed... Read More

Fed’s Bullard: Shrinking Balance Sheet Could Begin, Yellen: Fed Won’t Sell MBS, Will Use Runoff Instead

The chatter about the Federal Reserve shrinking its massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet and its huge $1.7 trillion portfolio of agency MBS has continued in recent days, with one Fed official talking up the idea and another describing how the U.S. central bank plans to do it. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said in a speech last week that the Fed could begin normalizing its balance sheet. “The Fed’s balance sheet has been an important monetary policy tool during the period of near-zero policy rates,” Bullard said. Thus far, the Fed’s Open Market Committee has not set... Read More

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