RMBS

HSBC's residential lending and servicing business continues to be under what the bank calls a “strategic review,” leaving its mortgage workers in limbo.Servicing advisors say the bank has considered selling its Depew, N.Y., servicing platform and its roughly $42 billion of receivables, but hasn't liked the bids offered thus has far.

Bankrupt bond insurer Ambac Financial Group had a net loss of $963 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused Wells Fargo of failing to produce documents relating to an investigation of the bank's mortgage-backed securities.The SEC filed a subpoena enforcement action in federal court on Friday, seeking to force Wells to comply with subpoenas dating back to September 2011.

The government-owned Ally Financial sold $250 million of legacy mortgages last year, using the whole loan securitization market, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A week of predominantly housing reports, no Treasury coupon auctions, and very little Federal Reserve speak was supposed to provide a respite after the sharp sell-off last week via upbeat assessments of the economy in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement.

Most big lenders are proceeding as if new capital rules will inevitably force them to shrink their mortgage servicing rights, with a notable exception: Wells Fargo.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts have updated their home price model and think that home prices are currently bottoming out.

In competitive sports, being first is always the goal. But the distance between the U.S. — at the head of the pack — and the rest of the world in crafting financial reforms is becoming a major hurdle for implementing the Dodd-Frank Act.

Administration officials are trying to get the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to reconsider its resistance to principal reductions on loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told lawmakers Wednesday.