RMBS

Moody’s Analytics has updated its risk management tool called Mortgage Portfolio Analyzer (MPA) to help retail portfolio managers manage the credit risk in their mortgage portfolios.

Mortgage application activity overall was essentially unchanged as slightly higher purchase activity was offset by a dip in refinancing.

Trafigura Securitization Finance's (TSF) series 2012-1 is in the market. The offering is backed by a pool of trade receivables originated by Trafigura Beheer B.V., Trafigura Pte. (Singapore), and Trafigura AG, according to Standard & Poor's.

Fannie Mae and Citibank officials were developing a principal reduction pilot program that was supposed to go live in July 2010 when it was “mysteriously” stopped and later terminated, according to congressional investigators.

The real estate owned-to-rental niche currently may be "the world's biggest $0 billion industry," as Rick Sharga of Carrington Mortgage Services said at the recent SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas, but it should start to grow.

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.