RMBS

WE’RE HEARING there’s no easy way to get a high rating on an REO-to-rental securitization. But a strong sponsor helps.

Servicers need to pay more attention to changes in home prices and how they relate to delinquency rates.

Egan-Jones Ratings Company and its president Sean Egan will be barred for at least 18 months from rating asset-backed and government securities issuers as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization.

Kroll Bonds Rating and Fitch Ratings assigned preliminary ratings to Redwood’s second residential mortgage-backed securitization in 2013 called Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2013-2.

Covered bond investors are taking a more flexible view of the ratings and other characteristics of these investments, according to a survey conducted last month by Fitch Ratings. Yet they are discriminating about which jurisdictions they want exposure to.

A rebound in mortgage refinancing activity this month should be an influence in February and March MBS prepayments, though the day count will be the primary driver.

Fitch Ratings projected on Thursday that structured finance issuance in Europe would, in the aggregate, stay flat in 2013 from 2012.

Flagstar Bancorp was sued Friday by MBIA over $165 million in losses related to two securitizations that Flagstar sponsored and MBIA insured in 2006 and 2007.

Retail banks might return to the Mexican market or residential mortgage-backed securities.