Ginnie Mae announced that it has guaranteed more than $39.95 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in April 2013. Issuance for Ginnie Mae II single-family pools led the way with more than $31.20 billion, while Ginnie Mae I single-family pools totaled nearly $8.75 billion. Issuance for the Ginnie Mae Home Equity Conversion Mortgage-Backed Security (HMBS), included in Ginnie Mae II single-family pools, was $972 million. Total single-family issuance for March was $37.81 billion. In addition, Ginnie Mae’s multifamily MBS issuance reached $2.146 billion for the month.Click to continue

Fannie Mae CEO Tim Mayopoulos announced that Fannie Mae’s pre-tax income for the first quarter of 2013 was the largest quarterly pre-tax income in the company’s history at the Housing Policy Council’s 10th Annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The company reported pre-tax income of $8.1 billion for the first quarter of 2013, compared with pre-tax income of $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2012.Click to continue

Bank of America Corporation has announced a comprehensive settlement with MBIA Inc. to resolve all outstanding representations and warranties claims and all other claims between the parties. The agreement requires certain approvals of the New York State Department of Financial Services, which are expected to be received shortly, at which point the parties will execute the agreements and promptly close all contemplated transactions described below.Click to continue

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released reports prepared by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on their multifamily businesses. The reports were conducted at the direction of FHFA pursuant to its goal of contracting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s overall market footprint and generating potential value for taxpayers.Click to continue

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a progress report on steps being taken to establish a Common Securitization Infrastructure for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). The update reflects feedback from a broad cross-section of industry participants following FHFA’s issuance last October of a white paper entitled “Building a New Infrastructure for the Secondary Mortgage Market.” The white paper sets forth a proposal for both a new securitization platform and a model contractual and disclosure framework.Click to continue

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the guilty plea of Kareem Serageldin, the former managing director/global head of structured credit in the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse Group. Serageldin was extradited from the United Kingdom on April 5, 2013, to face charges that he fraudulently inflated the prices of asset-backed bonds in Credit Suisse’s trading book in late 2007 and early 2008.Click to continue

Ginnie Mae has announced that it guaranteed more than $36.44 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in March 2013. Issuance for the Ginnie Mae Home Equity Conversion Mortgage-Backed Security (HMBS), included in Ginnie Mae II single-family pools, was $889 million. Total single-family issuance for March was $34.18 billion. In addition, Ginnie Mae’s multifamily MBS issuance reached $2.26 billion for the month.Click to continue

Loss severities for U.S. RMBS will continue their slow decline this year due in part to the increased use of short sales, according to Fitch Ratings in its latest mortgage market index. Fitch's Loss Severity Index improved to 64.2 percent for the first quarter of 2013, down from 67.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Drivers of the improved loss severity rate include increased short sale percentages, fewer servicer advances on missed payments, and increased home prices.Click to continue

Ginnie Mae has announced that it has guaranteed more than $41.21 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in December 2012. “Ginnie Mae has proven to be essential to the health of the housing finance market,” said Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer. “Ginnie Mae’s MBS are a dependable source of liquidity for lenders who originate government-backed mortgage loans and for investors who rely on our guarantee.”Click to continue

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has filed a lawsuit against Standard and Poor’s (S&P) in connection with the ratings that it issued on structured finance securities, including residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) that were issued at the height of the market from 2004-2007. This lawsuit is part of a joint federal-state effort to hold those responsible for their part in the foreclosure and financial crisis.Click to continue