RMBS

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is turning its sights on companies’ in-house and outside lawyers for obstructing investigations and for green-lighting questionable mortgage bond deals, The Wall Street Journal reported this morning.

Industry veteran Tony Renzi, who joined Freddie Mac last spring as part of a major organization at the GSE, has resigned from the company effective May 11, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

While still a shadow of its former self, the bond insurance industry is showing signs of revival amid a pickup in issuance of deals backed by riskier assets.

A recent story on Bloomberg reported that Treasury officials are leaning toward a specific option outlined in 2011's white paper on the future of the GSEs. While their preferred option is impractical and unworkable, I believe that Fannie and Freddie can be restructured to serve as the foundation for a new mortgage system backed by private capital.

Fitch Ratings caused a stir last month when Credit Suisse dropped the firm's rating of an RMBS because it took a more critical view of the deal than two of its rivals.

Two and a half years ago, regulators opened the door for rating agencies to offer ratings or commentary on credits even when they haven't been hired to do so. Since then, all NRSROs can access detailed transaction data that issuers are required to post on designated issuer Web sites. The intended effect: a side market in unsolicited ratings and commentary. The actual effect: not a single unsolicited rating and roughly 15 commentaries.

It has been more than nine months since Sekerbank introduced Turkey to covered bonds, and no one else has followed suit.

The expected increase in mortgage prepayments following changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP 2.0, has so far not reached the levels expected.

Changes made late last year to the Obama administration's flagship mortgage refinance program, Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), have boosted profits at the nation's largest banks at the expense of homeowners and U.S. taxpayers, according to mortgage experts testifying at a Senate hearing the week of April 23.

Lenders are no more willing now to make a home loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac than they were six years ago, according to a Federal Reserve Board survey released Monday.