RMBS

Homeowners who originated their mortgages during the peak of the housing boom with unfavorable loan terms are getting more frustrated with their inability to refinance with mortgage servicers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. primary mortgage servicer satisfaction study.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) is currently seeking public comment on five publications that were released today regarding its RMBS rating process. This means that the rating agency can now rate residential mortgage-backed deals.

When Democrats used their majorities in the House and Senate last year to pass a financial overhaul largely along partisan lines, top Republicans were clear about what should happen next.

At the recent American Securitization Forum (ASF) Sunset Seminar, panelists looked back at the first year of Dodd-Frank, saying regulators are still missing the bigger picture.

Europe's reenactment of last summer's sovereign debt crisis heated up as talks of a Greek debt default intensified once again this July.

Greek bailout talks intensified once again this July, a repeat in many ways of last summer's discussions. But structured finance issuance is taking it much harder this year, as Nora Colomer examines in the cover story. In July two actively marketed European securitizations were abruptly pulled when the market got too volatile. Other issuers went the retained route rather than face the risks associated with bringing new-issue deals to market.

I recently completed the book Reckless Endangerment, a widely discussed and heavily promoted perspective on the mortgage and financial crisis. While the book is quite interesting and illuminating at times, it is a poorly written, incomplete and flawed analysis of recent events.

Most market participants believed that Congress was going to raise the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline. However, it was largely expected that the U.S. long-term debt rating was going to be downgraded from its 'AAA' status by at least one of the two big rating agencies.

Bank regulators expressed frustration July 27 over a little-noticed and initially uncontroversial provision of Dodd-Frank that forces them to eliminate references to credit ratings in most bank regulations.

The bust of Spain's construction boom has left some deep scars on the country's economy. To be sure, the crash has been a prime ingredient of the stubbornly high unemployment rate - currently at 21% - as well as of the mountain of troubled assets held by the country's savings banks, known as cajas.