RMBS

Redwood Trust, the nation’s only active securitizer of Jumbo residential loans, posted stellar earnings of $30 million in the first quarter, a 66% jump from the same period a year ago.

The Federal Reserve just released a paper titled The Federal Reserve’s Portfolio and its Effects on Mortgage Markets. To access the full paper, please click here.

Nonbank trade groups are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to narrow the definitions it will use to determine which nonbanks will be subject to federal supervision.

Home Loan Servicing Solutions (HLSS), a Grand Cayman-based company that was spun off of Ocwen in a Feb. 29 IPO, reported net income of $1.3 million for the first quarter.

Freddie Mac began purchasing Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) 2.0 loans in January and by the end of the first quarter had acquired $5 billion of these refinances, according to the company’s first-quarter securities filing.

Independent third-party review firm Allonhill hired Maria Sedlack as director of investor relations management.

The debate on “principal forgiveness” goes on. Policymakers from Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner to numerous members of Congress are urging lenders and mortgage servicers to reduce loan balances to help homeowners remain in their houses and prevent additional foreclosures, given the fact that 12 million homeowners are “underwater” on their mortgages and in danger of defaulting.Even Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, has called on the U.S. government to reduce mortgage debt “as a way to help revive that nation’s economy and stimulate growth in the wider industrialized world.”

Freddie Mac reported new record lows set on 30- and 15-year fixed mortgage rates as well as on one-year ARM rates for the week ending May 3.

Bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp. on Monday requested to withdraw from a legal case for an $8.5 billion settlement with Bank of America concerning MBS.