RMBS

Thomas F. O'Neill, a founding principal of Sandler O'Neill Partners, unveiled plans to retire from the New York banking firm — but join a financial services company controlled by MBS co-inventor Lew Ranieri.

Moody's Investors Service placed the 'Aaa(sf)' ratings on six Irish residential RMBS and one balance sheet CLO on review for possible downgrade.

Tradeweb and three Wall Street firms this week launched technology designed to mitigate the risk of failed to-be-announced (TBA) MBS trades in situations where deals can be resolved by delivery through tri-party arrangements.

Freddie Mac reported further increases in mortgage rates for the week ending Dec. 2 following the latest sell-off.

With foreclosures at an elevated level since the mortgage crisis broke out, the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS) has come under scrutiny.

Last month Asset Securitization Report met with dealmakers to talk about the future of covered bonds in the U.S.

Next year is looking to be another interesting one for the MBS market and a contributor to this is the possibility of the implementation of a fails penalty.

There is a reasonable chance that the incoming Congress will finally attempt to tackle the contentious issue of GSE reform. However, radical changes to the GSEs (with some discussion of eliminating them entirely) have the potential to seriously disrupt the mortgage and housing markets. Despite their depleted financial condition, they remain entrenched in housing finance, as more than two-thirds of MBS are being issued through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The commercial real estate (CRE) market, and CMBS as a component of this sector, has not been immune from the problems brought on by the financial crisis.

The European securitization market saw the return of regular new issuance with approximately €75 billion ($98.2 billion) distributed to end investors year-to-date. However, the uptick in primary volumes is still dwarfed by the retained securitizations that remain on issuers balance sheets.