Tag Archives: RMBS

Following the financial crisis, a prevalence of misrepresentations in the residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) market has exposed investors to greater risk, according to a recent report authored by university researchers Tomasz Piskorski, Amit Seru, and James Witkin. The researchers studied private-label RMBS sold in 2007 in search of misrepresentations regarding occupancy status and second liens. Overall, the researchers detected one of these two categories of misrepresentations in one out of every 10 loans.

Wells Fargo kept its place as the largest servicer in the fourth quarter, according to a ranking from Mortgage Daily, while Ocwen made its way to No. 6, a spot previously held by Residential Capital in the third quarter.

While most representation and warranty guidelines for recent residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) have been substantially stronger than observed in pre-crisis transactions, according to Fitch, the ratings agency has begun to encounter some proposals that fall short of the industry's recently-enhanced standards. Fitch is a strong proponent of the American Securitization Forum's Project Restart, which created a rep and warranty framework following the housing crisis. According to Fitch, the framework offers ""a high standard that provides the most assurances about loan origination and underwriting quality."" Some of the most recent RMBS transactions the agency reviewed stray from these guidelines and are ""weak,"" according to Fitch.

A judge in the Southern District of New York ruled Tuesday that Flagstar Bancorp will have to pay Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. more than $90 million for defective mortgages packaged in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that Flagstar must pay $90.1 million to Assured for misrepresenting loans in insured securities. Flagstar must also pay interest, attorneys' fees, and other costs to be determined.

The Justice Department (DoJ) and Standard Poor's are at odds with others over civil fraud charges stemming from an alleged scheme to defraud investors in the lead-up to 2008's financial meltdown. The DoJ filed a civil lawsuit against S&P and its parent company, McGraw-Hill, Monday, alleging that S&P ""knowingly [issued] inflated credit ratings"" for collateralized debt obligations in the years before the crash, misrepresenting their creditworthiness and understating their risks.

The act of securitizing mortgage loans can lead to riskier lending, and ultimately more defaults, according to a study posted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. About 60 percent of outstanding mortgage debt in the United States is traded in the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market, ""making the U.S. secondary mortgage market the largest fixed-income market in the world,"" according to Fed researchers. While admitting the MBS market ""is an important innovation and has several merits,"" the study finds a darker side to the market.

A former managing director and senior trader at Jefferies & Co. was charged for allegedly defrauding investors when selling residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in a release.

Serious delinquencies for U.S. RMBS improved across all sectors in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a new mortgage market index from Fitch Ratings. Furthermore, the agency expects RMBS delinquencies to continue declining this year. According to Fitch, the improvement ""reflects positive selection in the remaining pools, loan modification efforts by servicers, and positive home price trends.""

Less than a week after turning away from a lawsuit against the government over the terms of its bailout, American International Group (AIG) Inc. filed a suit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over its right to sue other institutions. AIG's suit seeks no money for damages. Rather, it revolves around an asset purchase agreement (APA) made in 2008 between itself and Maiden Lane II, a vehicle specially made by the New York Fed to purchase RMBS and take off some of AIG's financial burden.

After announcing Monday the sale of nearly $306 billion in mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) on 2 million loans, Bank of America might be looking to unload a little more. Reuters first reported Tuesday that the bank is planning to sell rights on at least another $100 billion of mortgages. BofA is likely to announce more MSR sales in the next several weeks, according to two unnamed sources who spoke to Reuters.