FBR: Subprime MBS Issuance Hits 6-Year Low

Investor aversion to subprime credits has pushed the issuance of subprime mortgage-backed securities down to $3.8 billion in October -- the lowest level since July 2001, according to a report by Friedman Billings Ramsey.The FBR Investment Management Inc. report shows that the issuance of private-label subprime MBS has fallen by 91% since October 2006, when Wall Street sold $41.9 billion of such securities. Private-label alternative-A MBS issuance fell from $7.9 billion in September to $6.3 billion in October. In October 2006, Wall Street sold $25.8 billion in alt-A MBS. The Structured Finance Insights report also shows that private-label MBS issuance (including prime, alt-A, and subprime) totaled only $19.5 billion in October, down 50% from that of the previous month and 81% from that of a year earlier. FBR can be found on the Web at http://www.fbr.com.