Market analysts, observers and participants alike feel pretty much in the dark about what to expect from Republican President-elect Donald Trump when it comes to the fate of government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “Mortgage finance legislation and the future of the GSEs was never discussed during the campaign so there are no clear indicators of what a Trump administration will do regarding the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a post-election review. Complicating life for the new regime is...
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Real estate investment trusts that focus on the residential MBS market reported a modest decline in agency MBS holdings during the third quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. A group of 17 large, publicly traded mortgage REITs held a combined $217.24 billion of agency MBS at the end of September, down 1.2 percent from the mid-year mark. But the decline was largely due to shuffling in the ranks that resulted in two firms exiting the business. Annaly Capital Management completed...[Includes one data table]
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Freddie Mac and Shellpoint Partners are preparing to price new securities in the aftermath of the presidential election, and Select Portfolio Servicing priced $600.0 million in an MBS backed by servicer advance receivables this week. Freddie is about to issue a Whole Loan Securities transaction, which would mark the second such issuance from the government-sponsored enterprise this year and the fourth overall, dating back to the first WLS transaction that closed in July 2015. The balance of the planned Whole Loan Securities Trust, Series 2016-SC02, is...
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As the new breed of subprime lenders continues to increase originations, these firms are now actively pondering whether they should approach the rating agencies about getting their firms rated. Dan Perl, founder and CEO of nonprime/non-QM lender Citadel Servicing, Irvine, CA, said his firm has approached Fitch Ratings and hopes to get rated as both a servicer and originator. Perl believes some of his competitors are going down the same path as well. He told...
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Credit Suisse issued two more series of notes this week on its mortgage-lending warehouse securitization offering, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The $1.20 billion in total new issuance from the Wall Street firm followed two notes it issued in August totaling $800 million. As with the August issuance, the new Mortgage Repurchase Agreement Financing Trust, Series 2016-3 and Series 2016-4, received A2 ratings from Moody’s. All of the deals were underwritten by Credit Suisse and HSBC Securities. The transactions are backed...
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Money market funds held $114.98 billion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac paper at the end of the third quarter, including MBS issued by the two government-sponsored enterprises and debt notes. The September figures represented a 5.7 percent increase from the midway point in the year and an 8.8 percent climb from a year ago. Freddie MBS and debt remained more popular, accounting for 60.1 percent of the sector’s GSE holdings. The data are...[Includes one data table]
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Over the past couple of weeks, a battle has been brewing over the government’s response to a court order to release dozens of documents regarding the U.S. Treasury’s net worth sweep of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits. Plaintiffs in Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al, filed an emergency enforcement motion arguing that the government is purposely taking too long to produce the documents and requesting unnecessary extensions. Federal Claims Court Judge Margaret Sweeney ordered the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Treasury to turn over 56 documents to the plaintiff’s attorney, under seal, back in mid-September. The agencies had been...
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Ginnie Mae’s decision to change the pooling requirements for streamline refinance loans should boost investor confidence and slow new production of GNMA IIs, Deutsche Bank analysts said. The change could be seen as mildly more restrictive than current pooling standards, particularly having more impact on VA loans, which unlike FHA, have no seasoning requirement to qualify for streamline refinancing, said Jeana Curro, bank research analyst. Under new guidance issued last month, in order to be pooled into standard Ginnie I or Ginnie II multi-issuer pools, streamline refi loans must show...
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Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement amount to ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. to resolve allegations of fraud related to insurance on a collateralized debt obligation backed by subprime mortgages. Details of the Abacus CDO settlement were not disclosed, although ACA initially sought $120 million in damages. First filed in 2011, ACA’s lawsuit accused Goldman Sachs and hedge fund Paulson & Co. of fraudulently persuading it to guarantee payments on the CDO prior to the financial crisis. ACA alleged...
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