While non-agency MBS participants largely oppose a credit rating assignment system proposed by Sen. Al Franken, D-MN, some of the main players in the market endorse a model based on ratings rotation. At a roundtable hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, Martin Hughes, CEO of Redwood Trust, said issuer-paid rating conflicts could be reduced by requiring non-agency MBS issuers to alternate rating services so that one firm didn’t rate more than two consecutive deals from the issuer. He noted that Redwood has established a self-imposed rotation between Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s on its non-agency MBS issuance. “The requirement to frequently alternate among the nationally recognized...

Freddie Mac is offering $1.0 billion of its non-agency MBS holdings for sale, according to a spokesman for the government-sponsored enterprise, part of efforts to meet requirements set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae also plans asset sales of some sort, but wouldn’t commit to selling its non-agency MBS holdings. Freddie held $70.28 billion in non-agency MBS at the end of the first quarter of 2013 and Fannie held $31.22 billion. The GSEs purchased the non-agency MBS before 2009 and have allowed the holdings to run off ever since. The FHFA recently required...

Shellpoint Acceptance Corp. hopes to come to market with its first non-agency MBS by summer, securitizing not only jumbo loans, but a host of mortgages that fall outside Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting guidelines for different reasons. According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company has committed $2 billion in capital to its shelf registration, though its first deal will be smaller than that. Shellpoint refers...

Real estate investment trusts are beginning to scale back their investments in MBS. Meanwhile, some are hunting for MSRs.

Risk-sharing transactions using credit-linked notes may be one path toward the goal of getting the government-sponsored enterprises out of conservatorship, experts told members of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment this week. The current GSE MBS market provides trillions of dollars of financing to the mortgage market while government guaranties and other structural features are required to maintain this market, according to Andrew Davidson, president of Andrew Davidson & Co. “As any part of GSE reform, I believe...

The Federal Reserve’s MBS purchase party isn’t over – yet – but it looks like the nation’s central bank is getting nearer to the last call. Late last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that officials at the nation’s central bank have developed a strategy for dialing back their unprecedented level of support of the housing market. The plan involves reducing the amount of bonds the Fed buys “in careful and potentially halting steps,” the WSJ said, with the purchases varying on the read officials have of the job market and of inflation. And although the timing of the Fed’s wind-down is...

Exactly one year after it filed for bankruptcy, Residential Capital announced this week it has entered into a “comprehensive plan support agreement” with its parent, Ally Financial, and ResCap’s creditors, who say they are owed some $25 billion in mortgage liabilities. The plan gets Ally out from under the threat of billions of dollars in lawsuits by settling all existing and potential claims between Ally and ResCap and all potential claims held by third parties related to ResCap that could be brought against Ally and subsidiaries that are not Chapter 11 debtors. The settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan, fully releases...

Since the housing bust, the Federal Reserve has purchased roughly $1.1 trillion of MBS backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae.

Hedge funds are paying as much as 20 cents on the dollar for preferred stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, the GSE buyback war is not over yet.

FHA loans saw an improvement in delinquencies even as the mortgage industry reported an increase in the overall delinquency rate for single-family mortgages at the end of the first quarter of 2013, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest national delinquency survey. Among loan types, the FHA saw the largest improvement on a seasonally adjusted basis as its delinquency rate dropped to 10.97 percent in the first quarter, down 20 basis points from the previous quarter. This was good news for an agency that has been battling to reduce losses and stabilize its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. However, the refreshing change was ...