RMBS

The $25 billion national mortgage settlement essentially allows the five largest servicers to police themselves — which has made many consumer advocates surprisingly happy.

A federal judge indicated yesterday he plans to reject Goldman Sachs' motion to dismiss National Credit Union Administration 's (NCUA) suit and continue the case challenging the Wall Street bank over $1.1 billion of faulty RMBS it sold to U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and WesCorp Federal Credit Union, the two biggest credit union failures ever.

Bond-insurer Assured Guaranty Corp. has sued JPMorgan over MBS that Assured says JPMorgan misrepresented.

Reuters news service is reporting that bond insurer MBIA has reached settlements in its lawsuit against the London branch of UBS.

Management at Ally Financial Corp. is considering throwing part of its mortgage division into bankruptcy and then executing a sale of most of its “good” assets, investment banking sources said late Thursday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is willing to back a GSE-related refinancing bill introduced by Sen. Al Franken, D., Minn., but wants assurances that the industry will no longer be hit with buyback requests on loans that are several years old.

The great land rush to riches in the Jumbo securitization market appears to have hit a brick wall.

Mortgage rates recorded modest increases in the week ending March 15, according to Freddie Mac's survey.More specifically, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 3.92% compared to 3.88% last week. Meanwhile, 15-year fixed moved up to 3.16% from 3.13%; 5/1 hybrid ARMs rose two basis points to 2.83%, while one-year ARMs "jumped" six basis points to 2.79%.Mortgage rates are likely to have moved up higher as the survey is done earlier in the week.

Portugal's Banco Santandar Totta has hopped on the buyback bandwagon, announcing a tender for its RMBS.