Tag Archives: Mortgage-Backed Securities

Though the value of Fannie Mae's Book of Business remained relatively flat from May to June, the GSE's gross mortgage portfolio took another tumble, falling another $5 billion down to a total value of about $390 billion, according to Fannie Mae's June 2015 Monthly Volume Summary released Friday.

Green reported that most of the $1.181 billion credit Bank of America was credited with in Q1 was based on 2,938 first lien principal forgiveness loan modifications. Those modifications, which include principal forgiveness, interest rate reduction, and bringing loans current without penalty, are intended to make mortgages more affordable for struggling homeowners.

When filing the appeal in April, Bank of America claimed that "the trial itself was riddled with errors at both the liability and penalty phases." The bank also claims the federal law under which the government made the claim comes with a penalty of no more than $1.1 million.

The lawsuit against RBS in the Connecticut court involved the selling of about $32 billion worth of faulty mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the crisis. The bank had set aside about $3 billion for a possible settlement but reports surfaced that the FHFA might ask as much as $7.7 billion.

The claims that were revived in the state court involved 794 private-label residential mortgage-backed securities that were securitized during a three-year period immediately prior to the financial crisis (2004 to 2007). According to reports, at the time of securitization, the trusts were worth about $743.8 billion. The investors are accusing the Minneapolis-based bank, as a trustee for the securities, of ignoring defects in the loans and failing to take action, which subsequently caused investors to lose billions of dollars in the aftermath of the crisis.

With the ruling, Judge Rosemary Collyer in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia settled a long-standing dispute over who is liable for facing the claims – JPMorgan has contended that the FDIC should be responsible because of its receivership of Washington Mutual, and the FDIC has countered that JPMorgan should pick up the bill because of its acquisition of Washington Mutual.

For the government-sponsored enterprise guaranty rating, Fitch notes that the GSEs as a whole are the primary drivers of this rating’s unconditional guarantee of full and timely payment on the MBS that secures the bonds. Additionally, the performance of the underlying loans or MBS servicer is not factored into the rating on the bonds.

The researchers discovered that mortgage loans with a CDS were much more likely to default than those without a CDS, because banks often allowed the riskiest subprime loans to be packaged into securities with CDS coverage.

Likewise, Forrest ruled that investors based in Ireland and the Cayman Islands lacked standing to sue the two banks. All of the plaintiffs were given a chance to amend their complaints.

According to the FHFA, the initial goal was to assist in building a Common Securitization Platform (CSP) and support the statutory obligation to ensure the liquidity of the nation’s housing finance markets issued by the FHFA. Taxpayers would also not have to suffer the cost of subsidizing Freddie Mac’s securitization of single-family mortgage loans with the Single Security.