RMBS

The 11 banks contesting MBIA’s February 2009 restructuring have long said the regulatory process allowing the move was based on outdated and inaccurate financial information. Now, they have evidence.

Mortgage application activity increased 2.7% for the week ending March 18 in response to attractive mortgage rate levels.

Brazilian securitization consultancy Uqbar said in a report that 2010 issuance of CRIs, the main vehicle for real estate securitization in the country, hit R$8.53 billion ($5.1 billion) last year (see chart below). This was more than double the figure for 2009.

Northern Rock said it is launching its first public securitization issue, which is in line with its agreed strategy. This transaction will diversify both the source and term of its funding base, and will be offered to investors in sterling and euros.

Forthcoming regulations could make conventional mortgages more expensive to the wide swath of homebuyers and owners who can't put 20% down, depressing originations and potentially undermining the housing recovery.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is expected to hit the Street Thursday with an offering of $1.5 billion of NCUA Guaranteed Notes being used to finance the corporate credit union bailout, the first offering in three weeks.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is going to allocate half its budget to supervision and enforcement of consumer protection laws with a strong emphasis on non-bank lenders. "We can't enforce the law only against banks that are the easiest to find," said Elizabeth Warren, the leader of Treasury Department's CFPB implementation team. "Instead, we will build a strong enforcement arm that will for the first time ever put significant federal resources behind ensuring compliance by non-bank financial companies."

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) said Tuesday it plans to consider the risk retention proposal at its next meeting on March 29.

Realpoint has launched an operational risk assessment practice that will be headed by Michael Gutierrez, formerly managing director and head of servicer evaluations at Standard & Poor's.

A question posed by Sen. David Vitter last week has sparked fears among investors about what exactly two top administration officials meant when they responded to whether the GSEs would be exempted from pending risk-retention requirements.