RMBS

The primary market for European covered bonds saw substantial volume sold in the first month of the year.

Bank of America Friday morning reported a fourth quarter loss of $5 billion on its residential finance and insurance unit, citing $4.1 billion in representation and warranty costs tied to buybacks from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the year ago quarter its mortgage loss was $1 billion.

When it comes to the future of mortgage securitizations, it's safe to say the entire business is up for grabs, but nowhere is that more apparent than in the market for issuing bonds backed by "nonqualified" residential loans.

Gains related to principal investments held by certain consolidated real estate funds contributed to relative improvement in Morgan Stanley’s earnings for 4Q10 and the full year in 2010.

Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp., New York, is offering for sale a $79 million package of residential servicing rights tied to Fannie Mae MBS.

Acting Comptroller of the Comptroller John Walsh cautioned Wednesday that regulators should not take a one-size-fits-all approach to applying pending Basel III capital standards to U.S. banks.

Mortgage rates were mixed in the week ending Jan. 20. According to Freddie Mac's weekly survey 30-year fixed rates rose three basis points to 4.74%, after two weeks of declines. Meanwhile, 15-year fixed rates slipped three basis points to 4.05%.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a fact sheet this morning on a rule requiring ABS issuers to disclose the history of both the requests they received and repurchases they made related to their ABS outstanding.

Housing starts fell to a new yearly low in December with builders breaking ground on just 417,000 single-family units annualized, according to new government figures released Wednesday morning.

The debate over where and how regulators should establish national servicing standards came to a head on Wednesday, with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair pushing to include them in a pending risk retention proposal, while Acting Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) John Walsh warned such a move would be inappropriate.