RMBS

At Ginnie Mae, Michael Bright worked closely with Congress to fight churn in VA mortgages; he plans to bring the same collaborative approach to the Structured Finance Industry Group.

Michael Bright is resigning as acting president of Ginnie Mae to run the Structured Finance Industry Group, a trade association that's been without a CEO since Richard Johns resigned in July amid a reported split with the group's board.

Acting Ginnie Mae President Michael Bright will leave his post on Jan. 16 and will no longer seek confirmation to be the permanent head of the mortgage secondary market agency.

New Residential acquired its latest pool of loans from five servicers, garnering a rare pledge of P&I advances on defaulted mortgages.

Liquidity, products and pricing are the main concerns for the secondary mortgage market in 2019.

The $255 million Verus 2018-INV2 has more exposure to cashout refinancings than the prior deal, completed in April; on the plus side, borrowers in the latest deal have more equity in their homes.

The $320.1 million Homeward Opportunities Fund 1 Trust 2018-2 features fewer loans that rely on alternative ways to document borrower income, but borrowers have higher debt-to-income ratios and lower FICOs.

Stricter energy regulations for European residential and commercial buildings, effective in 2020, will likely depress cash flow and property values, though the impact will vary by country, according to Moody's Investors Service.

As home value appreciation slowed, gains in home equity for the third quarter fell to the lowest level in two years, according to CoreLogic's homeowner equity report.

Over the past five years, 2nd lien RPL have defaulted at a similar rate to 1st liens, and have prepaid much faster; the senior tranche of notes to be issued has a weighted average life of around 1.5 years.