RMBS

Non-qualified mortgage-backed securities record issuance in the first quarter puts it on pace to top full-year volume predictions, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

The bank agreed to modify loans to struggling U.S. borrowers as part of a 2017 settlement. Instead, it’s receiving credit for financing new mortgages that likely would have been made anyway.

The Structured Finance Industry Group wants Treasury and the IRS to issue a notice that a change from Libor to an alternative index would not be treated as a taxable exchange.

While reinsurers are becoming more comfortable with the risk it is offloading, the GSE wants to maintain control of the workout process for loans that go bad.

Depending on market conditions and demand from whole loan buyers, it could fund 25% to 35% of fix-and-flip loans through deals like the $219 million one it just completed.

At $230 million, GSMBST 2019-PJ1 is notably smaller than recent transactions from JPMorgan and Redwood Trust; borrowers also have less equity in their homes.

Two Harbors Investment Corp., which grew its servicing portfolio by 22% in the fourth quarter, priced a common stock offering to raise funds to buy more rights as well as mortgage-backed securities.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association approved changes to its good delivery guidelines that ease the path to the government-sponsored enterprises issuing uniform mortgage-backed securities starting on June 3.

Agency mortgage-backed security prepayment speeds increased in February with much of the refinance activity coming from newer loans and those with high coupons, a report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said.

Being too dependent on the automated underwriting tools created by the government-sponsored enterprises to originate loans underlying private-label mortgage-backed securitizations could negatively affect their credit quality, a report from Moody's said.