RMBS

Vendors anticipated hearing May 27, the Friday after ASR's deadline, whether they could bid on the contract to build and operate a repository to collect and make available data for loans backing European RMBS, a project several steps ahead of a similar effort in the U.S.

Mortgage lenders and consumer advocates — two lobbies usually busy opposing each other — have joined forces to urge regulators to ease up on proposed risk retention requirements, arguing they will result in a credit crunch.

Refinancing waves sparked by falling interest rates have long been a mixed blessing for all involved. The consumer lowers his/her monthly payment, but often pays fees and signs mounds of paperwork. Banks reap profits from originating the new loans, and their salespeople rake in commissions. But banks and mortgage servicers also lose customers in a refi wave. And the investors in mortgage-backed securities get their principal back sooner than expected, and must redeploy it in a lower-rate environment.

Walter Investment Management Corp. closed the private placement of around $81 million of its Class B secured notes issued last Nov. 22 in a deal called Mid-State Capital Trust 2010-1.

Daryl Schwartz, the acquisition chief for G8 Capital, a private equity fund that invests in real estate and nonperforming mortgages, left the company last week.

Sometimes in Washington, even bad public relations can be good politics.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is expected to release its long-awaited proposal on changing servicing compensation by July with three main options being offered to the industry, according to servicing advisors close to the issue.

Home prices in March fell for the eighth consecutive month and reached a new low for this housing recession, according to a new reading on the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller house price index.

Increased supply, both in the primary and secondary markets via BWICs, and weaker market sentiment have pushed spreads wider.

A significant sector of the housing market is still being driven by sales of bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure, according to a report out Thursday from Realtytrac.