RMBS

The rate of improvement for U.S. subprime RMBS has slowed down, according to Fitch Ratings.

The European structured finance market has seen a rise in the ratio of deals sold to investors over those that are retained, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Housing and Urban Development, along with 49 state attorneys general, filed their joint $25 billion agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers in court Monday.

Amherst Securities Group (ASG) examined the historical performance of the non-agency market throughout the housing crisis in a report published late Friday.

Agency MBS certainly dominate the market today in many respects, but as one aspect of the recent strategic plan for the GSEs highlights, the private-label market can be considered ahead of them in terms of loan-level disclosure and it is time for that to change.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing's rating as a special servicer to 'SQ2-' from 'SQ2'.

Just about every week so far in 2012 has had a headline or tape bomb to deal with and this week was no exception. In fact, there were two that directly hit the MBS sector, which are the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance premium announcement and February prepayments.

The outstanding amount of home mortgages as of 4Q11 fell $40 billion quarter-over-quarter and $240 billion year-over-year to $10.3 trillion, Standard & Poor's analysts noted this morning, citing the Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data.

It may be a buyer's market for residential servicing rights but that isn't stopping mortgage banking firms from unloading their legacy housing receivables in an attempt to clean up their balance sheets.

Moody's Investor Service this week went “negative” on the mortgage insurance industry, citing the sector's weak financials and calling its future “unclear.”