RMBS

Starwood Capital Group is adapting its RMBS strategy for COVID-19, most notably through additional protections for senior noteholders to mitigate the substantial number of deferred mortgage accounts included in its newly sponsored deal.

First Republic is preparing a private-label residential mortgage-backed securities transaction and could be the first bank to launch this type of deal since the coronavirus first roiled U.S. markets in mid-March.

The history of riskier lending over the last half century can offer lessons for today's market.

The nascent market for private U.S. mortgages is teetering on the brink of collapse as the coronavirus crisis imperils years of work to lessen the government's role in home lending.

Two Harbors, a real estate investment trust, sold the bulk of its nonagency mortgage-backed securities portfolio to head off margin calls and refocus on its more favorable agency-MBS investments.

FirstKey's securitization of well-seasoned, reperforming loans is the second such transaction in a week — amid an otherwise barren securitization market ground to a halt from the coronavirus crisis.

Home price gains continued during the fourth quarter and pushed the share of upside-down mortgages to the lowest level since the housing crisis, according to CoreLogic.

With the return of volume and profitability to mortgage lending, it is no surprise that commercial banks are coming back to the market.

The $400 million Toorak Mortgage Trust 2020-1 is the largest securitization to date for Toorak, which provides short-term institutional capital for individual and corporate real estate developers.

Mortgage lenders could benefit from the surge in refinancing due to widening market spreads, and that could help offset damage to servicing rights portfolio valuations, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.