RMBS

  • Dutch house price expectations revised down

    Fitch has revised downwards its house price expectations for the Netherlands. The agency now expects Dutch house prices to decline by up to 25% from their peak levels, compared to previous expectations of 18%.

    This change is driven primarily by the likely changes to the tax regime and expected austerity measures, which could reduce the disposable income available to borrowers. .......

    News Round-up 18 December 2012

  • NCUA files largest suit yet

    The NCUA has filed suit in Federal District Court in Kansas against JPMorgan and Bear Stearns. It claims there were violations of federal and state laws in the sale of US$3.6bn of RMBS to four credit unions.

    It is the agency's largest suit to date and alleges that Bear Stearns made misrepresentations with the underwriting and sale of RMBS to .......

    Job Swaps 18 December 2012

  • ABX hits post-crisis high

    The ABX 2006-2 AAA sub-index passed a milestone last week, reaching the highest price since October 2008 (66.78). The most recent high for the index occurred in February 2011, just before a confluence of global macro events and changes in servicer advance strategies led to a 30% price drop in the latter part of 2011.

    The index has recovered the .......

    News Round-up 17 December 2012

  • Strengthening performance forecast for US SF

    Strengthening performance and issuance tailwinds in most US structured finance sectors are likely to push growth further in 2013, according to Fitch. However, one key area to watch in the coming year will be the potential drag created by fiscal cliff-related issues.

    "Securitisation re-established its importance to the global capital markets in 2012 and we expect this positive trajectory to .......

    News Round-up 14 December 2012

  • Increasing stability for Japanese SF

    Fitch expects slightly more Japanese structured finance transactions to maintain a stable outlook in 2013 than in 2012. Issuance is expected to increase modestly but not by enough to satisfy demand.

    Stable outlooks will be supported by steady asset performance and structural protection. Non-distressed CMBS tranches should show stable rating performance, benefiting from increasing credit enhancement caused by sequential payment .......

    News Round-up 14 December 2012

  • Riskier collateral expected in US RMBS

    Next year's vintage of US RMBS is expected to have riskier collateral, as well as weaker representation and warranties from smaller financially less-established originators than those issued in 2012. Meanwhile, a stronger housing market will help stabilise the performance of outstanding RMBS, according to Moody's.

    The agency expects that in 2013 issuers will introduce a new asset class backed by .......

    News Round-up 14 December 2012

  • 'Stapled financing' success seen in Spain

    Repossessed Spanish residential properties have sold this year for 65% less than their initial valuations, a significant deterioration from previous years, Fitch reports. The acceleration in price declines reflects the desire of lenders to offload real estate exposure, the rising number of repossessed properties, newly completed developments coming on line and the introduction of Spain's bad bank.

    Lenders have become .......

    News Round-up 13 December 2012

  • Fed MBS purchases to continue

    The Federal Open Market Committee has directed the New York Fed's Open Market Trading Desk to continue purchasing additional agency MBS at a pace of about US$40bn per month. The FOMC also directed the desk to maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from the Federal Reserve's holdings of agency debt and agency MBS in agency MBS. The amount .......

    News Round-up 13 December 2012

  • Fiscal cliff warning

    If negotiations over the fiscal cliff are unsuccessful, the reduced spending and tax increases will have a meaningful impact on both the broader economy and specific programmes important to the US housing market, Fitch warns.

    One programme that could be eliminated is the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007, which allows borrowers to avoid paying tax on the amount of .......

    News Round-up 12 December 2012

  • Non-conforming RMBS stress tested

    Triple-A rated UK non-conforming RMBS tranches can withstand significant macroeconomic stress, according to Fitch. On average, these notes have enough credit protection to cover around nine times the losses expected in the agency's base case, and would only suffer losses if 60%-65% of mortgage portfolios were to default and house prices were to fall by 60% from current levels.

    In .......

    News Round-up 12 December 2012

  • Mortgage insurer approach updated

    Moody's has updated its methodology for rating global mortgage insurers. The agency has introduced a new rating factor - Housing Market Attributes - that assesses the state of local housing markets. In addition, it has revised its capital adequacy metrics - which will now cap insurance financial strength ratings - and recalibrated the rating scorecard.

    Based on this new rating .......

    News Round-up 12 December 2012

  • PPIF liquidations continue

    The latest PPIP report shows that all funds have ramped up distributions, with liquidations expected to continue over the coming months. BlackRock is the latest manager to liquidate its PPIF.

    The move is not surprising for several reasons, according to ABS analysts at Barclays Capital. First is that the PPIP structure is an inefficient way to hold non-agency RMBS once .......

    News Round-up 11 December 2012

  • RMBS research head appointed

    Greg Reiter has joined Wells Fargo Securities as md and head of residential mortgage research. He will be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and report to head of structured products research Marielle Jan de Beur.

    Reiter will lead the RMBS research team in developing strategy, publishing research and generating investment ideas for institutional investors. He joins from Freddie Mac, where .......

    Job Swaps 11 December 2012

  • RMBS charges for former board members

    The US SEC has charged eight former members of boards which oversaw five Memphis, Tennessee-based mutual funds for violating their asset pricing responsibilities. The funds were invested in RMBS backed by subprime mortgages and fraudulently overstated the value of the securities during the crisis, the SEC says.

    The eight accused fund directors are Kenneth Alderman, Jack Blair, Albert Johnson, James .......

    Job Swaps 11 December 2012

  • 2013 Euro ABS credit quality up, issuance down

    The credit quality of new European ABS and RMBS issuance in 2013 will be better than that of existing transactions, expects Moody's. However, deals will be smaller and that will affect issuance volume for the year ahead.

    The agency adds that the performance of existing transactions will be correlated to sovereign strength, with asset performance being stable in highly-rated countries .......

    News Round-up 10 December 2012

  • South African RMBS reassessed

    Moody's has taken rating actions on eight South African RMBS, following its reassessment of the sector. The review takes into consideration the risks to RMBS ratings following the deterioration of the credit quality of the South African sovereign.

    Specifically, Moody's has downgraded the global scale ratings of one senior note and 19 junior notes, as well as confirmed the global .......

    News Round-up 7 December 2012

  • The changing value of credit

    Even among all the changes in the mortgage investment market...

    For years credit scores provided by the three major credit bureaus set the standard for evaluating creditworthiness. Lenders and investors were able to use credit scores to accurately determine the risk of default and provide risk-based pricing accordingly.

    And these credit scores are still used. But why did the number of defaults among borrowers once deemed prime increase dramatically in .......

    Research Notes 7 December 2012

  • Rating watches resolved

    Fitch has resolved the rating watch status of various classes in the US prime, Alt-A, subprime and re-REMIC RMBS sectors. The classes previously on rating watch negative generally reflected increasing tail risk, as well as rating sensitivity to the agency's updated loan loss model and surveillance criteria (SCI 13 August).

    For classes on watch negative, 89% of them have been .......

    News Round-up 6 December 2012

  • Further FHFA claim to proceed

    The FHFA is to proceed with most of its fraud claims against Societe Generale in connection with losses suffered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac related to the purchase of US$1.3bn of RMBS. A trial is scheduled for January 2015.

    The transactions were issued by Societe Generale and underwritten by Deutsche Bank and Bear Stearns. In denying most of the .......

    Job Swaps 6 December 2012

  • Increased clarity on LLD requirements

    The latest amendments to the ECB's collateral eligibility framework include information on loan level data (LLD) requirements for posted securitisations and the European DataWarehouse (ED). Data will have to be reported to the ED at least on a quarterly basis, no later than one month after the IPD. If data is not provided within one month of the IPD, repo .......

    News Round-up 6 December 2012

  • SCI conference line-up unveiled

    Final panellist line-ups have been announced for SCI's 6th Annual Pricing, Trading & Risk Management Seminar, which is taking place on 7 December in London. The event is being held at Reed Smith's offices at 20 Primrose Street, EC2A 2RS.

    This conference will focus on risk management and pricing/valuation issues, as well as trading and secondary market strategies. The programme .......

    News Round-up 5 December 2012
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