RMBS

Redwood Trust, the only firm to publicly issue Jumbo MBS the past two years, earned just $1 million in the third quarter, but its acquisition of nonconforming product in the secondary market jumped by 166%.

Two Harbors Investment Corp., a hybrid single-family residential mortgage REIT, recorded net GAAP earnings of $54.6 million during the third quarter when it completed a secondary stock offering and repositioned its portfolio to anticipate the HARP program change.

American Securitization Forum (ASF) Executive Director Tom Deutsch testified today before the capital markets subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.

Efforts to reinstate the $729,750 maximum loan limit for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration loans have garnered the support of 137 House members, including 25 Republicans.

The government controlled Freddie Mac posted a net loss of $4.4 billion in the third quarter, blaming the performance on higher credit costs and declining interest rates, which impacted the fair value of its investment in derivatives.

Ally Financial Corp. this week announced what it calls "modest" layoffs in its correspondent lending division, but declined to specify how many workers were cut.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke Wednesday afternoon said the central bank might scale up its purchases of agency MBS if conditions warrant, but not right now.

The European Union FTQ bid led to a decline in mortgage rates for the week ending Nov. 3.

The U.S. homeownership rate rose unexpectedly in the third quarter from 2Q11 as rental vacancies climbed – with new evidence suggesting that tenants are tiring of rising rents.

CoreLogic is now offering financial and government institutions a tool that provides them information in order to combat mortgage fraud.