RMBS

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.

A ruling issued yesterday by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied class certification in an MBS law suit.

Quality-wise originations after the downturn are generally said to be relatively good credits, but beyond that let’s take a closer look at what could shape the 2011 vintage this year.

Standard & Poor's put 1,981 structured finance tranches in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) on creditwatch negative yesterday as a result of the revision of its counterparty criteria.

Refinancing activity rose for the third straight week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

South Korean cross-border issuance of ABS will be spurred along by two developments in 2011, according to a report on structured finance in ex-Japan Asia by Moody’s Investors Service. One is the maturity of several credit-card and auto loan deals this year. The other is the arrival of potential new originators among credit card businesses freshly spun off by banks.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair warned Wednesday that regulators must add new servicing standards to a pending risk retention rule to ensure there is not a double dip in the U.S. housing market.

Section 946 Dodd-Frank Act requires the Financial Stability Oversight Council's (FSOC) chairman, who is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to issue a study on the act’s risk retention requirements within 180 days of its enactment.