|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home > Professional Development > Conferences and Events
|
|
PRINT
|
|
| Title: | MBA Statement on SEC Telephone Interpretations | | Source: | MBA | | Date: | 8/9/2006 |
Members of the Media, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is very pleased that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released clarifying
guidance on Regulation AB - Item 1122, Compliance with applicable servicing criteria. Through recent letters and conference
calls, MBA offered industry feedback to the SEC and recommended that the SEC issue additional interpretive written guidance
to assist mortgage servicers in planning and performing Item 1122 engagements. Item 1122 requires reports to be filed annually
with investors regarding servicers' compliance with specified activities or "criteria" as outlined in the Regulation. The public mortgage-backed securities industry continues to rapidly grow. Since January 2006, $586 billion of non-agency residential
mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and $98 billion of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) have been issued. Most of
those deals are covered under the SEC's Regulation AB. The SEC interpretive guidance reflects several clarifications, as recommended
by MBA in a letter dated May 17th (attached), which include: Testing platforms can be defined by management in different ways within certain reasonable parameters;
The phrase "maintenance of collateral or security on pool assets" under criterion (d)(4)(i) refers to the mortgage (or other)
instruments, rather than to the related real estate or other collateral security.
The focus of testwork at the platform level under Item 1122 is different from the focus of testwork at the transaction level
under Item 1123, Servicer compliance statement; therefore, testwork of servicer activities may lead to different outcomes
on compliance under these two reports.
MBA believes that the published SEC telephone interpretations (which incorporated the new, updated comments within a set of
interpretations originally posted in December 2005 and can be found at http://www.sec.gov/interps/telephone/cftelinterps_regab.pdf) will be extremely helpful to servicers in planning and performing Item 1122 engagements in this critical initial implementation
year. MBA applauds the SEC on its quick turnaround and continued efforts to address industry concerns with the Regulation. Should you have questions, please contact Angela Waugaman, (202)557-2829 or awaugaman@mortgagebankers.org.
|
|