RMBS

After helping banks weather the financial crisis and oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Richard Neiman is expected to step down as New York banking superintendent in April.

As the mortgage servicing settlement talks stall, some observers are wondering whether the two main parties — the banks and the attorneys general — would be better off without making a deal.

Ally Financial, which hopes to go public this year, has agreed to sell $1.25 billion of bonds related to excess mortgage servicing rights.

JPMorgan Chase chairman Jamie Dimon recently sat down with analysts at Citigroup Global Markets and told them what many smaller players in the mortgage business have believed all along: that a 20% downpayment definition on the 'qualified residential mortgage' (QRM) test will benefit the nation's megabanks.

Mortgage lenders funded roughly $33.2 billion of Jumbo mortgages during the fourth quarter, a handsome 57% gain from the same period a year earlier, according to survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

A powerful Republican congressman late Thursday introduced a GSE reform bill that would push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship after two years and fully privatize them at the end of five.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) sued three top executives of Washington Mutual Bank, alleging their "extreme and historically unprecedented risks" in the bank's mortgage lending operations helped cause the biggest failure in U.S. history.

As state and federal officials struggle to reach a global settlement with the largest mortgage servicers over problems in the foreclosure process, regulators have grown frustrated with the lack of leadership on their side, saying no one is making an effort to corral the multitude of agencies involved.

In a decision issued late yesterday, P Kevin Castel, a judge in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, ruled against a class action suit versus Countrywide Financial Corp.

While regulators are moving toward requiring high downpayments for the majority of home buyers, there are still ways to aid first time buyers, according to Obama administration officials.