RMBS

Investors, as well as issuers of MBS with government guarantees, should take a hit if the underlying loans go bad, according to former GSE regulator James Lockhart.

New York Life Insurance Co., TIAA-CREF, the French bank Dexia and other institutional investors joined the list of bondholders seeking compensation from Bank of America Corp. over losses on Countrywide's MBS.

The Obama administration will not make its Jan. 31st deadline for proposing reforms to the GSEs, an administration official said Monday.

The biggest obstacle to reforming mortgage servicing may be that regulators cannot agree on the proper vehicle for it.

Martin Fingerhut, previously a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon's (Blakes) financial services group and chair of the law firm's structured finance group, is moving to Cassels Brock & Blackwell, another Canadian law firm based in Toronto. Fingerhut was hired as a senior partner and head of the firm's securitization group.

Ginnie Mae is weighing its options on what to do with $22 billion in servicing rights it yanked away from Taylor Bean & Whitaker (TBW)in the summer of 2009.

Last year's robo-signing scandals delayed tens of thousands of foreclosures in the 23 states where the process is handled in court. A new controversy could complicate foreclosures in the other 27 states.

Residential Capital, an Ally Financial subsidiary, cannot be sued in a class action law suit where the proposed class comprises "large, institutional and sophisticated investors" that have the financial resources as well as incentive to pursue their own claims, Judge Harold Baer ruled in the case called New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund v. Residential Capital LLC.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) late this week sold another $1.5 billion of its NCUA Guaranteed Notes, bonds whose cash flows ultimately come from toxic MBS owned by now defunct corporate credit unions.

The 50 state attorney generals continue to work on a settlement with the top five mortgage servicers, according to market reports.