RMBS

Trapped for nearly a year in limbo, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle may finally be seeing a way forward.

Both refinancing and purchase activity rose in the week ending Oct. 22 as mortgage rates declined after rising in the previous week.

A handful of state attorneys general are taking a hard line with mortgage servicers by demanding loan modifications and principal reductions for those borrowers whose rights may have been violated by robo-signing.

An investment banking firm is warning federal regulators that a congressional mandate to stop relying on the credit ratings of Standard & Poor's and other agencies could be disruptive to the MBS market and increase capital requirements for depository institutions.

CIT said on Tuesday it earned 66 cents a share or $131.5 million in the second quarter, thanks to gains in its transportation finance and vendor finance businesses.

The Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program has more canceled modifications than active ones, according to a Treasury Department report released Monday.

When times are tough, consumers, increasingly, are paying their credit card bills first and worrying about the mortgage later.

Mortgage originations could fall dramatically next year by one-third, even as purchase-money lending increases, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said at its annual convention in Atlanta.

The robo-gate fiasco is more about faulty internal processes on the part of overwhelmed loan servicers than it is with the securitization of mortgages, a panel of key secondary market executive agreed at the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) convention in Atlanta.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair became the first regulator to publicly shoulder some of the blame for foreclosure problems at several servicers, saying the agencies should have seen it coming.