Obama administration officials continue to claim that the administration is working toward a program to refinance or modify non-agency loans for borrowers with negative equity. Support in Congress for such a program is largely limited to Democrats, with the Obama administration suggesting that a non-legislative solution could be implemented. “We must expand streamline refinancing to families whose loans are not guaranteed by the government,” Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury ...

Assured Guaranty won a lawsuit this week against Flagstar Bank regarding a breach of representations and warranties on more than $900 million in non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued by Flagstar. Industry analysts suggest the ruling is significant as it is one of the first in favor of bond insurance companies trying to enforce breaches of reps and warrants, and U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff endorsed many of the tactics they have used to seek buybacks, including ... [Includes two briefs]

Most securities issuers and investors who attended this week’s American Securitization Forum ASF 2013 conference in Las Vegas were optimistic about the market. “We are seeing demand that we have not seen in years,” said Michael Binz, a managing director and business leader of North America ABS at Standard & Poor’s. Binz noted that the mood at the conference a year ago was starkly different, with fewer investors, diminishing supply and regulatory uncertainty. About 5,660 people registered to attend the conference this year, up from 5,000 last year, according to Tom Deutsch, executive director of the ASF. Deutsch noted...

The government-sponsored enterprises are working several different risk-transfer pilots and will soon issue the securities, according to officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Non-agency MBS investors appear eager for the securities, though a number of regulatory concerns remain, including complications with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Patrick Lawler, chief economist at the FHFA, said a risk-sharing transaction will hopefully be issued in the “not too distant future.” Speaking at the American Securitization Forum’s ASF 2013 conference this week in Las Vegas, Lawler and other officials with the FHFA and GSEs said risk-sharing transactions are a high priority this year. “The commitment is...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have created a limited prototype of their somewhat controversial standardized securitization platform and are working to address industry feedback, according to officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the government-sponsored enterprises. Speaking at the American Securitization Forum’s ASF 2013 conference this week in Las Vegas, Patrick Lawler, chief economist at the FHFA, said a limited prototype of the securitization platform has been developed. Wanda DeLeo, deputy director of the FHFA’s office of strategic initiatives, said the GSEs continue to work on the prototype, which is based largely on the architecture outlined in an October white paper from the FHFA. The white paper received...

Federal regulators faced with finalizing controversial rules on risk retention in non-agency MBS, ABS and commercial MBS transactions of the future are considering a “fair-value” approach instead of the controversial premium capture cash reserve account. Although no details on the proposal are available, the American Securitization Forum recently provided general views on how fair value calculations of an issuer’s risk-retention requirement could replace the PCCRA. The group said the change could be “a significant improvement” over the PCCRA, which could have wreaked havoc on the securitization market. The PCCRA, which would have required issuers to hold in reserve any premium they earned in selling assets to a securitization trust, was...

The volume and market share of non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security issuance increased significantly in 2012 compared with other post-crisis years. However, volume remains well below activity seen even before the 2005 boom in non-agency MBS issuance. Some $3.46 billion in non-agency jumbo MBS were issued last year, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database, more than four times the volume issued in 2011. Redwood Trust issued six deals last year totaling ... [Includes one data chart]

After including a significant amount of ARMs in its first deal of 2013, Redwood Trust relied largely on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for its second non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security of the year, according to presale reports released this week. The $666.13 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2013-2 is set to receive a triple-A rating with characteristics largely similar to other recent issuance from the real estate investment trust. While ARMs accounted for 21.0 percent of the dollar volume of SEMT 2013-1 ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and General Electric this week settled a lawsuit filed by the FHFA in 2011 regarding $549.0 million in non-agency mortgage-backed securities purchased by Freddie Mac. The settlement is the first on the FHFA’s 18 pending non-agency MBS lawsuits. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Residential Capital agreed to pay $297.6 million to Fannie Mae this week, prompting the government-sponsored enterprise to drop its objection to ResCap ... [Includes four briefs]

The non-agency jumbo MBS market in 2012 posted its best year since the cratering of the U.S. housing market and financial market collapse back in 2008, and increased regulatory clarity may spur the recovery further in 2013. A total of $3.46 billion of non-agency jumbo MBS were issued last year, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. In the pre-crash years, that level of issuance didn’t add up to a decent week in productivity. But last year’s prime non-agency MBS issuance was...[Includes three data charts]