RMBS

Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke said he is dismayed by the persistence of high foreclosure rates, declining home values, and the futility of government efforts to engineer a recovery in the housing market.

Massachusetts' highest court on Friday voided foreclosures on two homes because the servicers that tried to take title to the properties failed to show they held the mortgages at the time of foreclosure.

PHH Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J., could write up the value of its mortgage servicing rights by between $125 million and $175 million for 4Q10, an earnings preview report from FBR Capital Markets predicted.

The 30-year conventional speeds in December were slightly slower versus expectations of a slight increase.

Citigroup is soliciting potential buyers for its subprime lending unit CitiFinancial, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing sources it did not identify.

Covered bond issuance is off to a strong start with at least 12 deals being marketed from issuers across Europe.

The California Association of Realtors, whose members are frustrated by the dearth of short sales, has created a task force to examine the shortcomings of the government's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program.

Daniel Mudd, the former chief executive of Fannie Mae, once said that fighting the company's regulators and critics was "like having an argument with your spouse. There's no use in being right. You have to find the way forward."

Interactive Mortgage Advisors (IMA), Denver, has closed on the sale of $502 million of bulk mortgage servicing rights backed by Fannie Mae loans in North Carolina.

Although GSE reforms could open up some additional conforming mortgage flow into the private label RMBS sector, there is still a very limited amount of mortgage origination to securitize.