RMBS

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said today that the winning bidders have been selected in Fannie Mae’s first bulk sale offering through the REO-to-rental pilot initiative.

Lender Processing Services will acquire mortgage origination technology developer LendingSpace in a deal expected to close later this month.

The crisis in mortgage lending and the anger that followed the robo-signing scandal has become a crisis of paper. There are lots of new laws and government guidance that all say some version of the same thing—mortgage lenders have to be wary of how their third-party service providers are following rules designed to protect consumers, or the lender may find itself in noncompliance.

CoreLogic's May Home Price Index (HPI) marked the third consecutive nationwide increase in home prices on both a year-over-year and month-over-month basis and and the Pending HPI Forecast shows gains to continue through June.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) said in a white paper it released today that the single securitization platform for the GSEs outlined by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in its strategic plan could eliminate the pricing disparity that exists among the two agencies.

In a last-minute reversal, David H. Stevens, the president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), will remain at the trade group rather than departing to run SunTrust Mortgage, as he announced plans to do a month ago.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) doesn't have a direct mandate over the securitization industry, yet it is one of the biggest regulatory wildcards, particularly for deals backed by residential mortgages in the foreseeable future.

Securitization market executives may want to reconsider their summer vacation plans. Not only are significant rules stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act likely to be issued soon, but an earlier proposal amending Regulation AB, which had been put on the backburner, may be finalized over the next few months.

The TBA market is widely viewed as an essential element of a functioning mortgage market, serving as both the ultimate source of liquidity and a crucial pricing benchmark for housing finance. However, the market has evolved significantly over the last few years; a major change has been the growth of the specified pool sector. This column will examine this development and its implications for the MBS and mortgage markets.