RMBS

First Republic is preparing a private-label residential mortgage-backed securities transaction and could be the first bank to launch this type of deal since the coronavirus first roiled U.S. markets in mid-March.

ABS participants saw markets freeze and were bracing for worse when federal aid provide a short-term respite. The question now: How much trust can anyone put in the medium-term and beyond?

Two Harbors, a real estate investment trust, sold the bulk of its nonagency mortgage-backed securities portfolio to head off margin calls and refocus on its more favorable agency-MBS investments.

FirstKey's securitization of well-seasoned, reperforming loans is the second such transaction in a week — amid an otherwise barren securitization market ground to a halt from the coronavirus crisis.

Although its share price has plunged alongside other mortgage REIT players during the coronavirus crisis, Chimera Investment Corp. (NYSE: CIM) this month is offering a vote in confidence in itself and its market.

The $400 million Toorak Mortgage Trust 2020-1 is the largest securitization to date for Toorak, which provides short-term institutional capital for individual and corporate real estate developers.

Mortgage lenders could benefit from the surge in refinancing due to widening market spreads, and that could help offset damage to servicing rights portfolio valuations, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

DBRS Morningstar and Moody’s Investors Service have assigned preliminary ratings to the Classic RMBS Trust, Series 2020-1 transaction sponsored by Home Trust Co.

Five MBS pools of predominantly non-QM mortgages have been launched into the market by originators and loan aggregators, according to ratings agency presale reports published since Monday.

Trade associations representing mortgage lenders and securities market participants are asking the Federal Housing Finance Agency to rethink a plan to restrict pooling options for loans sold into uniform mortgage-backed securities.