Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the third quarter of 2005 recaptured a small bit of the market share the two government-sponsored enterprises have seen taken by nontraditional mortgage securities over the past few years. According to a new analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, the combined MBS production of the two GSEs accounted for 42.9 percent of total issuance during the third quarter. It was a good time to... Read More

Freddie Mac uncovered extensive accounting problems in February, 2003, and was able to remove three top executives and complete a full internal investigation within six months. More than a year after Fannie Mae’s accounting issues were discovered, however, observers are still waiting for the government-sponsored enterprise’s internal report – and some believe there are ulterior motives are behind the delay. “There are definitely some political concerns there,” said Bert Ely, an… Read More

Bank regulators and other federal officials might be able to put indirect pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to shrink their massive portfolio investments even if Congress fails to enact legislation to overhaul oversight of the two government-sponsored enterprises. In a speech to Asian investors this week, Stephen Blumenthal, acting director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, said that the Department of the Treasury and bank regulators… Read More

Issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities reached another record high in the third quarter of 2005, jumping 8 percent from the previous period to $41.49 billion. Through the first nine months of 2005, total commercial MBS issuance has soared to $115.15 billion, up 60.0 percent from the same period in 2004, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. That’s already more than the $98.24 billion issued in all of… Read More

Increased use of derivatives in the collateralized debt obligation and credit default swaps markets has led to new modeling techniques for measuring credit risk and, ultimately, impressive growth in both markets in recent years. As some of those techniques make their way back to their original source, the mortgage market, one market analyst sees it as technology coming full circle – to the benefit of MBS investors. The recent growth of... Read More

A due diligence firm specializing in the non-agency MBS market hopes to capitalize on the changing mortgage market by going public. Clayton Holdings, which provides loan and portfolio analysis, operations support, due diligence and compliance services, last week filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Company officials said changes in the industry are increasing demand for its services. More capital markets firms are using outsourced… Read More