Compliance & Regulation

Joseph Smith has assumed his duties as the monitor for the $26 billion foreclosure settlement and he will be responsible for making sure five mega-servicers live up to the terms of the agreement and reform their servicing and foreclosure practices.

Non-agency MBS investors should look for bonds with smaller loan sizes in a structure that is levered to severity, said Amherst Securities Group analysts in a recent report.

If the new RMBS deals issued in the past week give an indication of what the non-agency market space will look like, then it is clear that only the best will do.

The potential sale of the Maiden Lane III (ML III) assets might signal that the Federal Reserve is making its move to take liquidity out of the system, securitization experts said Thursday.

There have not been very many weeks yet this year where the markets have not been roiled about something, and the last week was not one of them either.

Wells Fargo, the successor to Wachovia Capital Markets, told a federal court in Wichita, Kan. Friday it should dismiss NCUA's suit over mortgage-backed securities Wachovia sold to offering prospectuses.

As bankruptcy filings become more common in Utah, there is a need for law firms to hire more attorneys to be able to protect consumers and businesses with their legal problems.

A federal court has frozen assets at five California companies that are being investigated for trying to scam U.S. homeowners facing foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission says it has opened an investigation into companies, which charged its customers up to $10,000 for legal advice and forensic audits.

The annual Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance premium officially increase April 9 to 120 basis points for loans with terms greater than 15 years and loan-to-value ratios less than or equal to 95%.

There often has been more talk than action in some cases when it comes to bringing old deal-types back to the new-issue securities market. But two notable transactions did emerge recently, and investors considering them should take note of how they and today's environment differ from what was seen in the past.