The outstanding supply of single-family MBS in the market fell slightly in the first quarter, but you have to go two paces to the right of the decimal point to see it. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis indicates that outstanding MBS totaled $6.407 trillion as of the end of March. That was down 0.01 percent from the previous quarter, stalling a steady expansion of the market that took place in 2015. And with a modest 0.2 percent increase in total single-family mortgage debt outstanding, the modest contraction in MBS nudged...[Includes two data tables]
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With time ticking toward a Dec. 24 compliance date, issuers of commercial MBS continue to try to develop structures that will meet risk-retention requirements. Richard Jones, a partner at the Dechert law firm, warned that the industry is “in trouble.” In an analysis published this month, he wrote, “We as an industry don’t have a scalable solution to the problem. We … do not know what this will cost, who will pay for it, and to what extent this is an existential risk to commercial real estate capital formation as it has been conducted for the past 25 years.” He noted...
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A $1.98 billion non-agency MBS issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank in April prompted interest from a wide variety of industry participants, but other big banks appear unlikely to issue similar deals, according to analysts at Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s was one of the firms to place AAA ratings on Chase Mortgage Trust 2016-1. The deal was unique in that 74.0 percent of the 5,353 mortgages in the MBS were eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. And it was...
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The long-awaited correction in MBS prices was put on hold this week with the news that the Federal Reserve isn’t ready to hike interest rates anytime soon. Moreover, now there’s a growing belief among some economists and mortgage market watchers that the central bank may not raise interest rates at all this year. And there’s even a school of thought that suggests the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond might hit 1.0 percent before it reaches 2.0 percent. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press this week, the 10-year was...
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The Urban Institute is warning against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac putting all of their eggs into one credit-risk transfer basket. The CRT programs at the two government-sponsored enterprises have relied heavily on structured debt notes sold to capital market investors – Freddie’s Structured Agency Credit Risk and Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities – as well as reinsurance. Although the influx of private capital is a good thing, Karan Kaul, research associate with UI, said...
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A proposed rule issued by the Federal Reserve in March could increase costs and reduce securitization activities, according to industry participants. The Fed’s proposed single-counterparty credit limits for large banking organizations were required by the Dodd-Frank Act. The Fed proposed single-counterparty credit limits for domestic and foreign bank holding companies with $50.0 billion or more in total consolidated assets. The Fed first issued...
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The mortgage industry and secondary-market investors continue to struggle with uncertainty over the degree of liability for errors in complying with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s integrated-disclosure rule, commonly known as TRID. Many hope the pending TRID 2.0 rulemaking expected from the CFPB this July will clarify and resolve the exasperating ambiguity and at least let industry participants and investors know exactly where they stand and what risks they are taking on. One of the most important areas for investors is contractual liability. “Under most mortgage loan purchase agreements, there is a representation and warranty for absolute compliance [or] a signed agreement saying that you’re only liable for material violations,” said Richard Horn, a Washington, DC, attorney. Speaking at this week’s American Bankers Association conference, the former CFPB official said, “But whatever the agreement, you still have contractual liability for the loans that you sell, so keep that in mind.” Civil liability is...
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