Securitization of income-property mortgages jumped 23.0 percent from already strong levels during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis. A total of $47.61 billion of commercial MBS were issued during the first quarter, including a variety of non-agency deals as well as multifamily MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. That was the strongest level since structured finance markets tanked in 2008. The previous post-crash high was...[Includes one data chart]
The Vertical Capital Income Fund is a publicly traded mutual fund whose stated goal is to buy whole loans from banks and nonbanks, providing an attractive yield to its investors. But will it ever get around to securitizing its holdings? For now, the answer to that question appears to be no, but its something the fund is looking into. Lets put it this way; weve discussed the possibility, said Richard Mason, vice president of secondary marketing for the company. Part of Verticals problem is...
Moodys Investors Service has come up with a monitoring approach to evaluating tail risk in non-agency MBS that pay scheduled principal and prepayments to the securities on a pro-rata basis and assessing the adequacy of the credit enhancement available to the rated securities. Tail risk is what might be described as the end of life risk of a disproportionately large loss (based on current balance of the pool) on the underlying pool at the end of a transactions term when few loans remain in the pool and credit enhancements, although high in percentage terms, may be very low in dollar terms. The proposed change in approach at Moodys will mostly affect...
The commercial MBS market is starting to catch fire. Moreover, a new report from Fitch notes that commercial delinquencies continued to fall last year, a trend that will continue.
Consumer advocates also recommend that state policymakers pass legislation or implement regulation requiring servicers to adopt and engage in loss-mitigation practices.
The White House wants to change the HARP eligibility date, making more underwater borrowers eligible for the program, Inside Mortgage Finance has learned.
Despite little vocal, organized opposition, expected industry group support and bipartisan praise, industry observers on Capitol Hill say it is far from a given that the White House will follow through and nominate Moodys Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi to a five-year term as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The buzz has died down considerably since the White House leaked Zandis name early last week in the latest trial balloon of potential nominees to replace Edward DeMarco, who has led the FHFA in an acting capacity since September 2009. However, theres a growing feeling of certainty within the industry that if President Obama does in fact follow through and sends a name to the Senate for confirmation, it would be Zandi.
Over the past year, Fannie Mae has sought to impose higher net worth requirements on seller/servicers but has been rebuffed at least temporarily by its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, industry sources familiar with the matter told Inside The GSEs. These same sources argue that the FHFA is definitely open to the idea of hiking the current net worth minimum of $2.5 million, but it wants to make sure that any change applies equally to originators that sell to both Fannie and Freddie. Right now this is a process, cautioned one observer. Its not an event. Theres no timeframe on this yet.
Fannie Mae is moving closer to hiring IBM as a technology vendor to handle certain data processing chores for the GSE, according to two former Fannie officials. However, as Inside The GSEs went to press, details about what exactly IBM might do for the secondary market giant was unclear.Its a huge contract, involving many employees and facilities, said one source. Its broad-based. But its also unclear whether the contract has anything to do with the single MBS platform, a project being overseen by Fannies regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.