RMBS

Flagstar Bank has closed on the sale of a $474 million portfolio of non-insured non-performing residential first mortgages.

While the investment opportunities in the nonagency RMBS space are not what they were in 2008, there is still opportunity there, executives at an internally managed real estate investment trust investing in nonagency and agency RMBS told attendees at a REIT conference in New York.

Dismal home sales figures to be released by Mexican research company Softec are sure to hit construction-loan securitizations, according a report by Moody’s Investors Service. The firm will project a 12% drop for 2010 in a report due to be released over the next few weeks.

Walter Investment Management Corp., Tampa, Fla., has priced a private placement of RMBS notes to be issued by Mid-State Capital Trust 2010-1.

The White House announced Friday that it intends to nominate Joseph Smith, the commissioner of banks for North Carolina, as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

House and Senate appropriators allotted $150 million for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) reverse mortgage program but now it appears those credit subsidy funds won’t be needed because of the new FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Saver program.

Market estimates of cumulative losses of $400 billion at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are "overly pessimistic," declared analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW).

Impac Mortgage Holdings, a former Alt-A giant that survived both the housing bubble and a NYSE delisting, has launched a new wholesale division, promising the industry "pipeline transparency" and "industry innovation."

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) reiterated its support for retention requirements tailored to different securitized asset classes to regulators.

As the chief executive of Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. wealth management business, John Taft works in Minneapolis and reports to Toronto. But now, as a leading voice of the securities industry lobby, he will be devoting much more of his time to Washington.