The House Financial Services Committee this week voted 49-14 to pass credit rating agencies reform legislation which would not only tighten oversight of the industry but also allow investors to sue if they felt they were misled by an investment rating. H.R. 3890, the “Accountability and Transparency in Rating Agencies Act,” passed with strong bipartisan support and is deemed tougher than the Obama...
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Standard & Poor’s has issued new criteria that would allow, in certain circumstances, mortgage securitization transactions backed by higher-priced mortgage loans to be rated without requiring additional credit enhancement. Following a review of the Federal Reserve’s final rule amending Regulation Z under the Truth in Lending Act and Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, S&P said it views rescission as...
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Fitch Ratings was the most active rating service in the non-agency MBS market through the first nine months of 2009 – a potentially ominous sign since the company has put a freeze on rating a major component of the market: Alt A MBS re-securitizations. Fitch rated 82.0 percent of the non-agency MBS that were issued with ratings during the first three quarters of the year, far above the company’s...
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Mortgage loan originators could find themselves required to hold onto as much as 10 percent of the risk associated with each loan they originate and then sell off, while securitizers would face a similar “skin in the game” requirement for every mortgage they touch, under legislation being considered in the House Financial Services Committee. Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-MA, worked with...
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Distressed, illiquid assets still present viable investment opportunities, securitization experts said at an industry conference this week. But caution is advised because of uncertainty about future market developments and lukewarm investor confidence in the non-agency MBS space. At the ABS East conference in Miami, hosted by the Information Management Network, industry participants said...
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The MBS and ABS markets are slowing crawling out of the doldrums, said investors, lawyers and government officials at an industry conference in Miami this week, but still-weak housing indicators and uncertainty about how the market will react when the government pulls out its hand is casting a cloud over the path to recovery. Some 1,900 securitization professionals convened in Miami for the Information Management...
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