RMBS

European securitization market players will apparently put more "skin-in-the-game" than their U.S. counterparts if U.S. regulatory requirements for risk retention move ahead as written.

As with their counterparts in other areas of structured finance, emerging market players have been mulling over the question of where exactly their deals fit in the new regulatory landscapes of Western Europe and the U.S.

The financial crisis reached its apex in fall 2008 when major Wall Street firms collapsed. But for the big three rating agencies - Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings - the crisis began at least a year before, when they started issuing massive downgrades of RMBS.

Standard & Poor's, along with Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, downgraded billions of dollars structured transactions in the summer of 2007, resulting in a wave of criticism. So when Deven Sharma was named S&P president on Sept. 1 of that year, he kicked off a reform program that continues today.

The Treasury Market Pratice Group (TMPG) published it's proposed fails charge for agency MBS and debt set to take effect early next year. The trade group is taking comments on the proposal until June 10.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have agreed to "single track" delinquent borrowers for at least 120 days before servicers begin foreclosure processing under new loss mitigation guidelines sanctioned by the GSE regulator.

The combined earnings of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) totaled $358 million in the first quarter, up 10% from a year ago, the FHLB Office of Finance reported Friday morning.But bad investments in private-label MBS continue to be a drag on earnings at several banks and it pushed the Seattle bank into the loss column again.

Recent collateral requirements from the European Central Bank (ECB) appear to be creating, among other things, some demand for new second ratings of older MBS and potentially other deals.

For banks looking to sell nonperforming assets, pricing realities are not ideal. But they have become increasingly tolerable.

Although a handful of bidders have pondered the thought of buying roughly $40 billion of servicing rights being peddled by HSBC Bank USA, it appears the deal has stalled for now.