The legacy of toxic subprime and Alt A MBS from Countrywide Financial continued to spread last week, with a California appeals court deciding to allow a class action involving a number of pension funds and other institutional investors against the lender to proceed. The plaintiffs allege that Countrywide and a number of its subsidiaries, officers and U.S. investment banks violated the Securities Act of 1933 by making materially false and misleading statements in over 450 prospectus supplements relating to the issuance of more than $300 billion in subprime and Alt A securities. Specifically, plaintiffs allege the defendants misrepresented the quality of...

Savings institutions reported a total of $200.9 billion of residential MBS in their retained portfolios at the end of the first quarter of 2011, up marginally from the end of the previous year. But the heart of the industry – firms regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision – actually posted a small decline in their MBS holdings during the period. The OTS itself is being phased out as a separate federal regulator, although the savings association charter will continue under the supervision of a dedicated unit in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. OTS-regulated thrifts held $157.6 billion of MBS in their portfolios at the end of... [Includes two data charts]

Facing significant penalties from investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street banks are bracing for investigations of their securitization activities by the influential New York attorney general’s office and other state regulators. NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has reportedly launched an investigation into the securitization processes of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and Deutsche Bank. All the parties declined to comment, but reports say that the AG is looking into how the banks securitized mortgage loans, as well as their other practices handling mortgage loans. Specific concerns have...

Pending inter-agency proposals to implement risk-retention requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act could undermine the return of private capital to the housing finance market, warned industry participants. Testifying this week during a House subcommittee hearing, the Mortgage Bankers Association and other critics of risk retention said that a narrow definition of a “qualified residential mortgage” and overemphasis on higher downpayment may have an adverse impact on credit availability. MBA Chairman Michael Berman told members of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Economic Opportunity that while...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency last week issued a final rule regarding the FHLBanks which limits the Banks’ mortgage-backed securities holdings, especially non-agency MBS. In its notice, published in the May 20 Federal Register, the FHFA said it is re-organizing and re-adopting existing investment regulations that were previously issued by the Federal Housing Finance Board. The final rule will retain the Finance Board’s Financial Management Policy provision limiting MBS holdings to 300 percent of a Bank’s capital. “Contrary to suggestions that the 300 percent of capital limit was inflexible and outdated, FHFA believes the limit reasonably serves to control Bank investment activity that does not...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities remained a preferred investment for the Federal Home Loan Banks during the first quarter of 2011 with only a negligible decrease from the previous quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside The GSEs based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.Meanwhile, Ginnie Mae securities continued to grow in popularity within the FHLBank system during the first three months of this year. GSE MBS still accounted for 66.7 percent of combined FHLBank MBS portfolios. The Finance Agency’s data do not separately break out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac volume or share. Ginnie MBS grew by... [Includes one data chart]

The federal government's gradual pullback as an investor in the MBS market is beginning to open more space for commercial banks and other private investors. Commercial banks increased their investment in residential MBS by a solid 6.5 percent during the first quarter, pushing their combined holdings to a record $1.311 trillion. That represented about 20.0 percent of an overall MBS market that has been shrinking since the third quarter of 2009. Bank holdings of residential MBS were up 14.2 percent from the first quarter of last year. Through the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the retained holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal government held... [Includes two data charts]

U.S. banks are generally more liquid than Basel III liquidity standards would suggest thanks in large part to the treatment of banks' large portfolios of GSE-related securities, according to Fitch Ratings.

The so-called RMBS 2.0 features squeaky-clean collateral and high-definition transparency, but industry experts say, more importantly, that after years of mostly talk there is now some momentum in the market. Adam Yarnold, a managing director at Barclays Capital, said there are half a dozen residential mortgage conduits – including his firm – that are buying loans. During a panel session at the secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association, he noted that more broker/dealers are in the wings. Barclays is buying high-quality loans with loan-to-value ratios below 70 percent and debt-to-income ratios that come close to the standards proposed by federal regulators for qualified residential mortgages, Yarnold said. The company hosts a web-based portal through which it locks loans and...

A handful of high-profile developments on the representations and warranties front over the last few months is prompting non-agency investors to contemplate whether they should start pricing in the benefits associated from repurchases. A few weeks ago, Bank of America and mortgage insurer Assured Guaranty reached a...