RMBS

Freddie Mac acquired almost $26 billion of residential loans during April, a steep 38% decline from the month prior, a sign that originations may be slowing — or that the GSE is losing business to its cross-town rival.

U.K.-based Clydesdale Bank is planning to issue new covered bonds from its regulated covered bond program.

The Treasury Department’s decision to raise the amount servicers can pay second-mortgage holders for a lien release should give its short sales program a boost, according to an industry expert.Second-lien holders can veto any short sale so Treasury raised the buyout limit by $2,500 to $8,500 in March along with other improvements to its Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program.

Allied Irish Bank (AIB) has signed HML to offer the U.K.’s first 48 hour "hot’"standby servicing arrangement for the issuer's £437.6 million ($683 million) securitization of U.K. mortgage assets.

The nation’s megabanks are continuing to sit on their nonperforming residential loans, although some are currently out in the market with mid-sized packages.

Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday morning that its national home price index fell 2% in the first quarter on a sequential basis.

Here’s an interesting statistic presented to me by one investor eyeing the mortgage market: over the past 18 months, REITs have raised $26 billion in new equity. Almost all of it has been targeted toward MBS investments. Very little has been plowed into mortgage servicing rights.

Following a slow beginning of the month, Standard & Poor's analysts, in a report released on May 25, stated that covered bond issuance has increased over the past few days.

The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) stopped purchasing private-label MBS in 2008, but losses on those bad investments have been a major drag on earnings ever since. But that may be changing.