Lack of Details Leaves Non-Agency Market Guessing at Impact of Servicing Settlement
February 17, 2012
Reaction among non-agency participants regarding the settlement by five large bank servicers announced last week has been mixed. Investors are divided on what impact principal forgiveness loan modifications will have on non-agency mortgage-backed securities largely because the settlement terms have not been settled yet. Once the bank modifies their own portfolio loans, where it makes sense to reduce principal, there is a huge incentive to do the rest of the modifications using investor money, warned Amherst Securities Group. This stems from the fact that the servicers are able to use investor funds to satisfy their own claims. And the conflicts of interest are exacerbated because of the second liens ...