RMBS

Mortgage bankers originated $16.8 billion of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed loans in February, a 27% decline from the prior month, and a sign that the spring home buying season may not be off to a rosy start.

Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) raised more than its targeted $1.5 billion to buy assets from banks looking to strengthen their balance sheets, according to a Bloomberg report.

When it comes to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac’s future and the administration’s options for this, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) last week was pushing for a guaranty that could be priced in a manner similar to what is seen in the derivatives market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) to reduce credit risk to otherwise vulnerable securitizations, such as auto loan deals.

The dollar amount of second lien mortgage debt continued to fall in the fourth quarter with roughly $620 billion in loans outstanding nationwide, a 9% decline over the past 12 months, according to survey figures compiled by ASR sister publication National Mortgage News.

The nation's 'robo-signing' scandal has left the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) with a backlog of nearly 176,000 loans that were in the process of being foreclosed upon at the end of 2010.

The aggregate value of commercial real estate (CRE) loans priced by DebtX that back CMBS rose to 79.9% as of Feb. 28 from 79.8% as of Jan. 31.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury will begin an orderly wind down of its remaining portfolio of $142 billion in agency-guaranteed MBS. Beginning this month, it plans to sell up to $10 billion in agency-guaranteed MBS per month, although this would be subject to market conditions.

Lender Processing Services (LPS) reported its February 2011 month-end mortgage performance statistics from its loan-level database of nearly 40 million mortgage loans.

REO services provider Default Resource hired James Zeldin as executive vice president and chief sales officer.