RMBS

U.S. structured finance players are exploring new frontiers. With ABS issuance volume not as robust as it once was, yield-hungry investors have turned to esoteric assets.

The Dodd-Frank Act's call for the creation a self-regulatory organization (SRO) or other entity to assign new ratings was mostly panned by structured-finance industry participants, but relying on existing Rule 17g-5 - the industry's preferred alternative - may have a fatal flaw.

The adage "Where there's smoke there's usually fire" probably explains the concerns about regulators' queries into whether REITs still warrant an exclusion permitting them to use significant leverage in their business models. The issue is especially relevant since REITs are primary buyers of agency RMBS and many view them as the likeliest buyers of private-label RMBS when that market's health returns .

Among the ideas surfacing as the government works on interest rate and housing policy interventions aimed at bolstering the economy is a plan for financing bulk REO sales for renting to private investors that could be structured in a manner similar to the Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF)/Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), an approach some securities analysts said recently they are favoring.

The current outlook for September prepayment speeds is for around a 10% increase overall with CPRs on 4s through moderately seasoned 5s increasing between 30% and 50%.

The issue of whether Greece will or will not default has yet to be put to rest. However, the securitization market proved its resiliency in the face of uncertainty as it opened up primary flow last month with a small bang.

Not too long ago, Turkey's Sekerbank was a name with no resonance in the structured finance world. Then, in mid-summer, the bank issued a covered bond deal that broke two barriers. It was the first of its kind from Turkey and the first covered bond globally to be backed by SME loans. Some covered bond purists even questioned whether SME collateral disqualified an instrument from being called a covered bond, which are overwhelmingly secured by mortgage pools. Turkish law has two separate regulations, one for covered bonds backed by mortgages and another for those secured by any of a wide range of other assets.

Three to four years removed from the time non-Agency RMBS and housing markets began to collapse, this article provides a historical performance update of the subprime loan sector for vintage years 1997 through 2008. Performance of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 vintages is far and away worse than for any other year, even prior to 2000 when subprime lending was still fairly new. In addition, the extent of negative equity in the borrower repayment pipeline for never-modified and at-least-once-modified subprime loans for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 vintages is measured. Given the extreme and broad corrections in residential property prices since approximately mid-2006, the mortgage repayment struggles of borrowers, and the intended effects of loan-modifications, negative equity density has been pushed to the performing and early-stage delinquency end of the pipeline. That is, modifications have resulted in a larger share of performing (active and current) borrowers with significantly more negative equity than otherwise would be the case had a loan modification not occurred.

The business of originating and servicing second liens continues to struggle with lenders cutting back on production and allowing their receivables to run off, according to new figures compiled by ASR sister publication National Mortgage News (NMN) and the Quarterly Data Report (QDR).

Years ahead of when it is due to be implemented, it's already clear that the Basel III accord will be plagued by serious trust issues.