Sponsors of non-agency MBS and non-mortgage ABS deals would have to retain a significant risk exposure in the transaction and provide considerably more information to investors if they want to use shelf registration for their issues under a rule proposed this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As drafted, the SEC proposal represents a bigger challenge for the MBS and ABS market...
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New MBS production at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae declined by 12 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the first three months of this year despite an overall increase in the securitization of refinance mortgages. According to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database, a total of $301.7 billion of agency pass-through... [Includes one chart and one graph]
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Home mortgage interest rates continued to creep higher this week – as they have for the past few weeks – after the MBS market lost its biggest investor, the Federal Reserve. Primary market rates for 30-year Fannie/Freddie fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.16 percent as of midweek, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newsletter. That was up 8 basis points from... {Includes one chart]
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The National Credit Union Administration is working on plans to take $50 billion of “toxic” assets – much of them mortgage-related – off the balance sheets of failed corporate credit unions and repackage them as securities to be sold to private investors without losing any money. “Isolating these so-called legacy assets … is a necessary first step in avoiding further damage, as we...
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The Securities and Exchange Commission this week took administrative action against Morgan Keegan and a related entity, as well as two employees, for alleged fraud in overstating the value of subprime MBS. The agency said James Kelsoe, portfolio manager for investment funds managed by Morgan Asset, told the fund’s accountants to make price adjustments in the values of subprime MBS. That resulted in
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The reverse mortgage market has shown strength through the market downturn, and analysts from Barclays Capital expect the product to become increasingly attractive and provide opportunities for secondary market participants. Reverse mortgages come in many forms, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s home equity conversion mortgage program accounts for more than 90 percent of...
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A panel of lawmakers and other experts tasked with examining the causes of the financial market collapse put securitization experts on the hot seat in a three-day hearing this week as they dug at the root of the problems in secondary markets leading up to the mortgage market crisis. Industry participants told the panel, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, that deteriorating...
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