Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are wading into the testing phase for the Single Security initiative for to-be-announced MBS, and they agreed on common names for the new product. The first-level securities – the equivalent of Fannie’s MBS and Freddie’s participation certificates – will be called “Uniform MBS.” The second-level deals – replacing Fannie’s Megas and Freddie’s Giants – will be known as “Supers.” Fannie has already registered the trademarks for these names. It appears that domain names for both, at least the .com variety, have been grabbed up. Both government-sponsored enterprises continue to prepare for conversion, and Common Securitization Solutions continues to release software for system-to-system testing, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s 2015 Scorecard Progress Report released late last week. These ...
Real estate investment trusts that focus on residential MBS continued to pare their investments in the fourth quarter, a trend that may last through the remainder of the year. Interest rate volatility and continued reports of “illiquidity” in the MBS market remain key factors plaguing the sector. Still, prices for agency product remain strong and, as Inside MBS & ABS noted recently, commercial banks and thrifts continue to add to their holdings, which reached a record $1.643 trillion at yearend 2015. The 16 public mortgage REITs tracked by this publication held $233.17 billion of MBS at year-end, 92.4 percent of which included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae product. The non-agency market continues to shrink as legacy nonprime securities ...
With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau declining to provide any more formal guidance on legal liability for secondary market players when originators make errors in TRID mortgage disclosures, a group of due diligence firms is moving ahead with their own clarifications. High-level sources familiar with the matter, and who spoke to Inside MBS & ABS under the condition of anonymity, said the forthcoming clarifications have been vetted by legal counsel and are almost ready for viewing. Several top third-party review/due diligence firms are involved in the effort, including Clayton Holdings and Opus. All the major rating agencies are involved as well. “We’re working to calibrate our methodology, to bring it in line with the spirit of the CFPB letter,” said ...
Ocwen Financial recently reported a large loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 along with investigations by a number of regulators, leading to a sharp decline in the company’s stock price and pressure to restructure its priorities. Ocwen took a pre-tax loss of $129.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. The biggest contributor to the loss was a non-cash charge of $101.9 million to establish a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets in the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands ...