RMBS

Annaly Capital Management, one of the nation’s largest mortgage investing REITs, earned just shy of $700 million in the first quarter, double what it earned in the same period a year earlier.

Despite what CEO S.A. Ibrahim described as the stagnant housing market affecting his company's mortgage insurance business, Radian Group reported a 1Q11 net profit of $103 million. This profit was driven by $319 million of fair market gains on derivatives.

The PMI Group, Walnut Creek, Calif., lost $127 million in 1Q11, as its U.S. mortgage insurance business had a net loss of $137 million for the period due to continued high losses and loss adjustment expenses and lower premiums earned.

Matthew Yoon has joined the financial services regulatory group of DLA Piper’s government affairs practice as a partner in New York, the law firm announced Thursday. Yoon arrives from SNR Denton and previously Thacher Proffitt & Wood.

The recent rally brought on by weaker than expected economic news pushed 30-year fixed mortgage rates to match its year-to-date lows, while 15-year fixed, 5/1 hybrid ARMs and one-year ARMs all set new lows for 2011.

The city of Los Angeles filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against Deutsche Bank, claiming the German bank failed to maintain foreclosed properties and illegally evicted hundreds of low-income renters.

Several portfolio metrics showed that the U.S. credit market is stabilizing and is even growing, according to Equifax's monthly National Credit Trends Report for March 2011.

Secondary and primary market representatives at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s secondary market conference Wednesday morning said their concerns about governmental changes like GSE reform and Dodd-Frank largely center on their potential to tighten mortgage credit availability and exacerbate a still-struggling housing market.

As GSE and other types of industry reform position the secondary mortgage market for a “do-over” of sorts, keep in mind some of the issues from the original formation of the MBS market that will likely have a role to play this time around, too.

Mortgage application activity increased 4% in the week ending April 29 as refinancing activity picked up in response to lower mortgage rates.