RMBS

Mortgage bankers likely won't see any official proposals to revamp servicing compensation until late summer, Ginnie Mae president Ted Tozer said Friday morning.

Redwood Trust's recent RMBS deal has been lauded by Fitch Ratings as implementing several important structural features that further reduced credit risk exposure for its senior bond investors. These are an improvement over 2005-2007 vintage prime deals.

In October 2008, 11 state attorneys general settled a lawsuit with Bank of America Corp. that was supposed to provide relief for up to 400,000 homeowners.

Freddie Mac purchased $38.9 billion of home mortgages from its seller/servicers in February, a slight gain from January, according to figures released Friday morning.

Although bankers are likely to have significant concerns about the risk retention proposal due next week, they appear to have won at least one victory already: a choice over how to structure risk that must be retained.

With principal reduction modifications a key component of the preliminary term sheet that was recently released by the State Attorneys General, there has been more attention placed on the success of these loan modification programs and their accompanying moral hazard issues, analysts said.

Regulators and politicians alike believe covered bonds could help fill the void created when and if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are dismantled, but right now one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the market moving forward is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

A private securities market set up exclusively for prime mortgages can be developed and attract investors as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are phased out, according to three American Enterprise Institute fellows.

Kondaur Capital Corp., Orange, Calif., is the winning bidder on a 1,000 unit nonperforming mortgage portfolio auctioned off by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

CoreLogic has introduced IntelliMod, a Web-based application that accelerates loan modifications that automates decisioning and fulfillment for both government and private investor programs.