RMBS

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) expressed their support for Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposals designed to increase transparency in the securitization markets, although, at the same time, the groups also aired some of their reservations.

The recent financial crisis and its aftermath have raised fundamental questions about the future of the U.S. housing market and the GSEs.

Russia's mortgage-finance market is sloughing off the toxic residue of the financial crisis, but the strength of the comeback is being largely conditioned by government support.

The Dodd-Frank financial reform act signed this month by President Obama was, in my reading, very unfriendly to the non-agency MBS market. Taken in its entirety, key provisions of the bill create significant and protracted uncertainty for issuers and investors, further delaying the much-anticipated revival of private-label MBS issuance.

Like many other New Yorkers beaten down by an interminably hot summer, I've been praying for a change in the weather. This isn't so different from what our market's after - a shift of sorts, a new climate that invites activity. Without that, we'll stay stuck.

Up until the market closed on Tuesday last week, the higher mortgage coupons were setting new price highs as the prepayment outlook remained fairly benign as a result of the U.S. borrowers' credit-impaired status.

Even though the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given securitization issuers six months to omit credit ratings from ABS registration statements filed under Regulation AB, the ABS industry still has to work on a long-term solution to the unintended consequences of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Europe has ridden into the summer months in the same state of uncertainty that has set the course for the last 18 months.

Despite the lower mortgage rates seen in recent months, MBS analysts across the Street are still expecting limited supply in the near term.

The idea of undergoing a stress test comes across as a much-needed safeguard to ease investor fears that the European banks with which they do business have sufficient capital to deal with future " stress" scenarios.