RMBS

Despite mortgage rates in and around record lows, mortgage application activity was relatively unresponsive for the week ending Sept. 16.

Foreclosed borrowers will be able to lodge complaints about their lender and seek a review of their case under recent consent orders issued against the 14 top servicers, a senior regulator said Monday.

As reported in a story published in StructuredFinanceNews.com yesterday, Federal Housing Finance Agency acting director Edward DeMarco reviewed the operating principles at work in the GSEs' conservatorship, highlighted some of the current initiatives and risks, and offered his thoughts on these agencies' future.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should bundle at least 200 REO properties in a given metropolitan area into one pool to attract bids by large investors that are willing to rent out single-family homes for at least three years, according to Laurie Goodman, a senior managing director Amherst Securities Group (ASG).

The housing finance sector will have to wait until next year for the final rule on what constitutes a 'qualified residential mortgage' (QRM), the unofficial head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) told a regulatory forum in Washington.

Insurance regulators remain steadfast in their position that certain kinds of bonds should be treated as structured securities, even amid criticism that the move will make them less attractive to their most important investors.

The chief author of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act took exception to what he called "the revolt against risk retention," saying requiring originators to hold 5% of the loan amount on their books is "one of the central things we did in the bill."

Raj Date, the de facto head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), said Tuesday that misaligned incentives led to some of the major problems in mortgage servicing and still persist.

The latest Jumbo securitization from Redwood Trust, the only issuer that has been in the market recently has a lot of positives as usual. But among its few negatives is a slightly reduced and somewhat idiosyncratic geographic concentration risk that may be offset by the strength of the regional originator the produces it.

Residential lenders issued $27.8 billion of GNMAs in August, a slim gain of just $14 million from the prior month, according to new figures released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).