RMBS

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a proposal Tuesday that would remove references to credit ratings from its regulations, and posted guidance to help banks evaluate investment risks.The Dodd-Frank Act requires federal agencies to review regulations that required banks to use credit ratings to asses the creditworthiness of a security or money market instrument. Under the law, regulators must modify the rules to remove the references to credit ratings, and substitute them with an alternative standard.

Santander U.K. is planning a new securitization backed by a pool of prime residential mortgages out of the bank's Fosse Master Trust structure.

The Bank of Ireland has offered to buy back up its Kildare and Brunel securitizations at between 28% and 88% of par. It stated that the move would reduce its regulatory capital by up to €300 million ($400 million).

Within minutes of Rep. Barney Frank's surprise announcement that he planned to retire next year, industry insiders and political analysts were focused on who would take his place as lead Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.

Fannie Mae in early November cut 160 full-time workers such as a handful of vice presidents, including one with almost 30 years of service.

Fitch Ratings expects to revise the rating outlook to negative for certain U.S. structured finance ratings. This is a result of the change in the U.S. sovereign’s rating outlook to negative from stable.

Judge Jed Rakoff from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York today rejected Citigroup's settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the sale of a $1 billion CDO linked to subprime MBS.

Mortgage balances on consumer credit reports dropped by about $114 billion or 1.3% during the third quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's latest report on household debt and credit.

New home sales rose 1.3% in October after September sales were revised downward, according to new government figures released Monday.Meanwhile, the median sales price fell to its lowest level of the year.

The proposed changes to the Standard & Poor's counterparty criteria make them generally more lenient, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) analysts said in a report released today.