Ranieri: SEC Needs to 'Step Up' on Exotics

Lew Ranieri -- the Wall Street sage who helped invent the MBS -- believes the Securities and Exchange Commission needs to play a central role in forcing issuers to increase disclosures on bonds collateralized by nontraditional residential loans.Mr. Ranieri told MortgageWire that "this isn't an indictment of the SEC," but added that "the transparencies are not what they should be." The interview followed a speech he made before a housing forum sponsored by the Office of Thrift Supervision. Mr. Ranieri also said the banks he is associated with have basically pulled out of the whole-loan market. (Mr. Ranieri said he has been a whole-loan investor for more than 20 years.) He said when his trading operation applied the new federal guidance on nontraditional mortgages to loans it was bidding on, it "kicked out 30% to 40%" of the product. Mr. Ranieri is concerned that end investors are not getting enough information on bonds backed by nontraditional mortgages, and that the new federal guidance is not applicable to this market because 80% of the product is sourced through loan brokers, winding up in bonds issued by companies not regulated by the banking agencies.