RMBS

Bankrupt bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp. has filed a second suit against JPMorgan related to MBS originated by Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan absorbed during the financial crisis in 2008.

Bank of America this month will try to unload roughly $42 billion of mortgage servicing rights through two different offerings, one involving private label product, according to investors and investment bankers familiar with the bank's auction plans.The first offering, which has been labeled 'Ganesha,' involves the sale of $22 billion of Freddie Mac related MSRs. The package has roughly 18.5% of delinquencies.The second offering – which was in the market and then pulled – involves $20 billion of private label MSRs, said one source who viewed the package. This auction has been dubbed 'Puma.' It's expected the Puma package will be rebid, and possibly reduced.

Hudson Valley Holding Corp. has completed the sale of $474 million in loans after it was required to reduce its concentrations in commercial real estate and classified loans.

Only a single borrower is currently delinquent among the roughly 1,800 newly originated prime loans securitized in the handful of Redwood Trust private-label RMBS seen since the start of 2010, according to a Fitch report Monday.

The Treasury Department is fighting back against critics of principal reduction who claim second lien holders will unfairly benefit from a reduction in the loan balances of underwater Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac loans.

Residential servicers completed 20% fewer proprietary loan modifications in February than the month prior, according to new figures compiled by the Hope Now servicing alliance.

Global structured finance issuance's modest pace in 1Q12 is credit positive for new-issuance in these products that include ABS, RMBS, CMBS and CLOs, according to an emailed note from Standard & Poor's this morning.

Investec has priced the second nonconforming U.K. residential securitization offering for this year.

A recent story in ASR's sister publication, National Mortgage News, reported that a number of conduits formed to securitize Jumbo-balance loans using private-label securitizations have recently been closed. This is not surprising, considering the continued difficulties the non-agency MBS market faces. Lenders' inability to securitize loans has profound implications for the mortgage and housing markets, and will make the GSEs increasingly indispensable to housing finance.

Subprime ABS is making a comeback, mostly through auto deals. Some issuers are even doing these deals for the first time.