The story of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) scandal added another chapter in March as Freddie Mac brought suit against Barclays, Bank of America, Citibank, and several other institutions for investment losses related to alleged rate-rigging practices.
Read More »Commercial/Multifamily Debt Up by Largest Amount Since 2008
Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt in Q4 was up by $21.8 billion, or 0.9 percent, from the previous quarter and up $29.7 billion, or 1.2 percent, from the fourth quarter of 2011.
Read More »Fitch: Recent Prime Borrowers Prepaying at Rapid Rates
According to Fitch Ratings, prime RMBS mortgage pools issued since 2010 had an average conditional prepayment rate (CPR) of about 42 percent, more than twice as fast as the rates of outstanding prime loans securitized in earlier vintages. Generally speaking, Fitch explained high refinance activity tends lead to more "performance volatility" since loans remaining in mortgage pools are usually of poorer quality. However, Fitch is seeing a different trend this time around.
Read More »MBIA Loses Appeal in Bid Against FDIC
A court of appeals upheld a lower court ruling against MBIA's claim seeking money from FDIC's sale of IndyMac Bank.
Read More »Freddie Mac Reports Recovery in Secondary Market Activity
According to Freddie Mac's Monthly Volume Summary for January, the GSE's portfolio contracted at an annualized rate of 4.8 percent to start 2013.
Read More »Fitch Notes Potential in FHFA Efforts to Restore Private Market
The goal of attracting private capital into the mortgage market is at the center of discussions throughout the industry and the government. Thus far, efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) and other federal agencies to provide incentives for the creation of a vibrant private mortgage securitization market have been largely unsuccessful, according to Fitch Ratings. However, the ratings agency does see some promise in a couple of FHFA's goals for this year.
Read More »Fitch: Recent RMBS Proposals Don’t Stack Up Against Guidelines
Some recent RMBS transactions reviewed by Fitch have strayed away from guidelines designed to create sound assurances about origination and underwriting quality.
Read More »Justice Department Sues S&P Over Pre-Crisis Ratings
The Justice Department (DoJ) and Standard & Poor's (S&P) are at odds with other over civil fraud charges stemming from an alleged scheme to defraud investors in the lead-up to 2008's financial meltdown. The DoJ filed a civil lawsuit against S&P and its parent company, McGraw-Hill, Monday, alleging that S&P "knowingly [issued] inflated credit ratings" for collateralized debt obligations in the years before the crash, misrepresenting their creditworthiness and understating their risks.
Read More »Freddie Mac Records $28.8B in 2012 Multifamily Volumes
As the multifamily sector continues to flourish, Freddie Mac also announced it hit record volume for its multifamily business in 2012.
Read More »FOMC to Continue Low Rates Efforts, Reinvestment Program
With a nod to the report the nation's economy had contracted in the fourth quarter, the Federal Open Market Committee ("FOMC") voted Wednesday to continue its program of purchasing $40 million a month of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and to maintain the target Fed Funds rate at 0 to 0.25 percent. The FOMC vote was 11-1 with only Kansas City Fed President Esther George (in her first meeting as a voting member of the committee) voting "no."
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