RMBS

Fitch Ratings published an exposure draft introducing its new rating model that determines losses on newly originated residential mortgages.

As expected mortgage application activity rebounded in the week ending Jan. 28 as the previous week was not adjusted for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Before 2011 even began, the prediction for asset quality in the new year turned decidedly positive.

Ally Financial reported its fourth consecutive quarterly profit Tuesday and its chief executive said the auto and mortgage lender is hyperfocused on repaying its $17.2 billion bailout as the company prepares for an initial public offering.

The head of the only active U.S. bond insurer on Tuesday ridiculed the new bond-insurer ratings methodology proposed by Standard & Poor’s as unjustified, irrational, and too subjective.

Citigroup late last month sold a $517 million portfolio of nonperforming mortgages, according to market sources.

To help more underwater borrowers, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has introduced a bill that requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stop charging high fees on refinancings of guaranteed mortgages with high loan-to-value ratios."These fees are discouraging borrowers from refinancing in a time of historically low mortgage rates, making it more likely that they will eventually default," said the California Democrat.

A 'qualified residential mortgage' (QRM) rule that does not include a mandate for mortgage insurance will not necessarily harm the MI industry, according to a new report from FBR Capital Markets.

Fannie Mae introduced of Fannie Mae Guaranteed Multifamily Structures or Fannie Mae GeMS.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds the recently postponed issuance of the mortgage securitization regulations required by the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA). In particular, two critical decisions involve the required risk retention contained in the DFA. The forthcoming directives will clearly have a major impact on the competitive and economic structure of the mortgage industry in the future.