Structured Finance
and Securitizaion
2015 Highlights
. Table of Contents
Intro
1
Forecast for 2016
2
Highlights from 2015
5
Thought Leadership
6
Rankings and Awards
7
Newly Promoted Partners
8
About Us
9
. Intro
In 2015, Hunton & Williams LLP’s structured finance and securitization team was engaged in a number of
ground-breaking transactions and provided critical advice regarding numerous practical implications of regulatory
developments. We appreciate the many opportunities we had last year to serve both our new and our returning
clients, and we look forward to continuing those important business relationships in the years ahead. Below is a
summary of factors impacting our clients in 2016, as well as an overview of our team’s activities in recent months.
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. Forecast for 2016
RMBS
In 2015, we represented issuers and initial purchasers
in numerous securitizations of re-performing and/or
non-performing residential mortgage assets. We believe
this market will have another strong year in 2016 as
investors continue to look for transactions that offer
attractive yield and shorter duration compared to other
ABS sectors.
As the market for non-qualified mortgage loans
continues to grow, we expect an uptick in the number of
securitizations in 2016 backed by these assets, as these
transactions offer more attractive yields to investors
versus traditional private label jumbo securitizations.
Despite overall improvements in housing fundamentals
and mortgage performance, we anticipate that the
private label jumbo RMBS market will remain relatively
flat in 2016. We believe that until securitization offers
higher yield and better economics for transaction
parties and investors alike (which likely will not happen
until interest rates rise further), potential private
label securitizers will continue to either retain loans
on their balance sheets or sell loans to the GSEs.
On a brighter note, however, many of the regulatory
uncertainties that were seen as hurdles in past years
have been overcome as market participants have
been able to move from predicting what the regulators
will require towards implementing finalized rules.
While we wait for a return of a robust private label
jumbo RMBS market, we expect to continue to see a
market dominated by GSE-sponsored transactions.
In addition, we believe there will be an increase
in alternative credit risk-sharing transactions
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piggy-backing off the GSEs’ successful risk-sharing
transactions in the form of structured medium-term
notes and other debt, synthetic securitizations,
retained recourse funding obligations, reinsurancebased catastrophe bonds or stand-alone derivatives
and insurance.
Servicer Advance Financing
Following the release of S&P’s revised ratings
methodology for servicer advance facility transactions
in October 2014, issuance of rated term notes backed
by servicer advance receivables picked up in early
2015 and remained robust throughout the year. Merger
and consolidation activity in the servicing industry in
the first half of the year led to additional new issuance
activity and refinancing of existing facilities.
Several
first-time issuers entered the market in 2015, adding
to the breadth of offerings in the market. While deals
backed by servicer advance receivables from private
label securitizations continue to comprise the majority
of term note issuances, transactions secured by
agency advance receivables increased this year, with
both unrated and rated deals.
For 2016, we expect that nonbank servicers and MSR
investors will continue to access the term note markets
as a primary funding source for servicer advances.
Activity will include both refinancing of maturing term
notes and new issuance to fund portfolio acquisitions.
Advance facility lenders will continue to evaluate the
impact of regulatory capital requirements with regard to
their variable funding note exposures.
Of note, servicer advance facilities will be required
to comply with US risk retention rules beginning
Structured Finance and Securitization: 2015 Year in Review
. Forecast for 2016 Continued
December 24, 2016. While disclosure and transaction
agreements will need to be updated to reference
the US rules, we do not anticipate the need for any
significant structural changes for traditional master trust
facilities to comply with the rules.
Asset-Based Lending/Warehouse Lending
In 2015, we continued to serve as one of the market
leaders in representing both buyers and sellers in
connection with asset-based lending and warehouse
lending transactions. We closed 72 transactions in
an aggregate amount of $14.4 billion, which included
residential and commercial mortgage loans, REO,
RMBS, CMBS and tax liens. We experienced robust
activity with agency-eligible collateral as well as jumbo
mortgage loans, non-performing assets and REO
property.
We also have represented parties financing
small-balance commercial mortgage loans and short
term “fix and flip” collateral. As certain banks exit
the residential mortgage space, we expect existing
warehouse lenders to gain additional market share and
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new warehouse lenders to increase the competitive
landscape. In connection with our asset-based
lending practice, we continue to devote a substantial
amount of time counseling our bank clients to ensure
that their interests are protected in transactions with
counterparties that are employing increasingly complex
fund structures.
Servicing Rights Financing
In collaboration with our corporate finance team, we
represented lenders (and in one instance, a servicer
borrower) on six secured lending facilities collateralized
primarily by mortgage servicing rights.
Three were
bilateral facilities and three were “club” facilities with
a small group of lenders. In addition, we represented
the underwriters of one term bond issue collateralized
by excess servicing spread cash flow. We anticipate
more syndicated credit facilities and recourse bonds
collateralized by mortgage servicing rights and/or
excess servicing spread interests in 2016.
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.
Forecast for 2016 Continued
Energy Securitizations
In 2015, our structured finance team was involved
in a number of energy-related financings, including
securitization transactions, receivables financings and
PACE loans involving various types of energy-related
assets. Working closely with our renewable energy
and clean power team, as well as our real estate,
bankruptcy and tax teams, our attorneys structured
innovative financing transactions designed to infuse
the renewable energy sector with much-needed capital.
We see this year as a turning point for the market, as
investors and rating agencies become more familiar
with renewable energy-related asset classes and as
market demand for this asset class broadens.
Marketplace Lending
In 2015, we saw multiple securitizations backed by
marketplace loans, as well as a strong increase in
originations and sales of marketplace loans. Hedge
funds, banks and other participants were very active
in acquiring marketplace loans. Some speed bumps
4
materialized in 2015 for marketplace loans, significantly
the Madden case in the Second Circuit.
Although some
participants have responded to the Madden case by
not acquiring loans with borrowers in the states of New
York, Connecticut or Vermont, we are working with our
clients on comprehensive responses to the Second
Circuit’s reasoning in the Madden case, and we believe
that 2016 will see more creative approaches to the
issues raised by it.
For 2016, we anticipate that, notwithstanding
the obstacles that arose in 2015, originations
of marketplace loans will continue to rise, more
securitizations (including rated transactions) will close
and the regulators, including the CFPB, will begin
making more formal inquiries of marketplace lenders.
We continue working with our marketplace lending
clients on addressing the issues raised in the Madden
case, state licensing matters for clients who purchase
marketplace loans, and regulatory inquiries and other
issues affecting marketplace lending participants.
Structured Finance and Securitization: 2015 Year in Review
. Highlights from 2015
We are privileged to represent many leading structured
finance and securitization market participants and
look forward to expanding those relationships in 2016.
Some of our representative transactions for the past
year are detailed below:
• We represented the dealers on all the Freddie
Mac Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR®)
debt notes transactions since the commencement
of the program in 2013, including all eight of the
STACR transactions that closed in 2015, with an
aggregate amount issued this year totaling more
than $6.6 billion.
• We represented issuers or initial purchasers in more
than 40 securitizations involving newly-originated,
re-performing and/or non-performing residential
mortgage assets, as well as multiple securitizations
involving small balance commercial loans.
• We represented the initial purchasers in Rule 144A
private placements on 25 transactions representing
total issuance of more than $18 billion in variable
funding notes and term notes backed by servicer
advance receivables.
• We represented the underwriters of two Nationstar
HECM Loan Trust transactions, including the
first rated deal of the program, with an aggregate
amount of $486 million issued. These transactions
were backed by FHA-insured HECMs (reverse
mortgage loans) that were either in default or
otherwise not eligible for the GNMA HECM
securitization program and by REO properties
obtained in foreclosures and other settlements of
defaulted HECMs.
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• We represented the underwriters and initial
purchasers in connection with the initial Freddie
Mac Whole Loan Securities Trust transaction,
an offering of approximately $300 million of
guaranteed senior and unguaranteed subordinate
actual loss securities.
• We represented a large mortgage loan servicer in
multiple sales of agency mortgage servicing rights
involving mortgage loans with an aggregate unpaid
principal balance of more than $90 billion, and have
represented other servicers in numerous sales and
purchases of mortgage servicing rights.
• We represented buyers and sellers in dozens
of whole loan purchase transactions involving
performing, nonperforming and reperforming
mortgage loans and FHA-insured mortgage loans.
• We represented Onslow Bay Financial LLC
and Hatteras Financial Corp. in the issuance of
the Onslow Bay Mortgage Loan Trust 2015-1,
mortgage pass-through certificates, Series 2015-1.
This was a $231 million rated offering of RMBS
backed by newly originated jumbo prime hybridARM mortgage loans.
• We acted as program counsel to Ginnie Mae
in connection with 117 multiclass securities
transactions, representing the issuance of more
than $49 billion of government-guaranteed REMIC
securities backed by government-insured mortgage
loans, including participations in governmentinsured reverse mortgage loans.
• We acted as tax counsel in each of the Fannie
Mae Connecticut Avenue Securities credit risksharing transactions.
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. Thought Leadership
In 2015, our lawyers spoke on panels and were quoted
in industry publications regarding a range of topics in
the structured finance and securitization industry:
• Hunton & Williams LLP and Digital Risk, LLC,
hosted Managing Credit Risk Transfer Symposium
• Eric Burner moderated “Securitization Outlook”
panel at ABS Vegas 2015
• Eric Burner was quoted in Inside Mortgage
Finance - Online: “LOs Shying Away from NonQMs Due to Underwriting Requirements”
• Bob Hahn was quoted in Debtwire: “SFR Likely
Considered Commercial Under Risk Retention Rules”
• Tom Hiner was a panelist on the “Excess Servicing
Rights & Servicing Advances” panel at IMN’s 2nd
Annual Residential Mortgage Servicing Rights
Conference in New York
• Thomson Reuters quoted Rudene Haynes on new
SEC regulations
• Melanie Finkelstein presented “What’s New with
TILA/RESPA: Integrated Disclosures, Servicing
Transfers and a QM Cure” at the Texas Bankers
Association Legal Conference
6
• Melanie Finkelstein published in Mortgage Banking
Magazine: “Ready or Not: Here TRID Comes”
• Leadership Metro Richmond, a regional leadership
development and service group, selected Rudene
Haynes for its flagship Leadership Quest program
• Melanie Finkelstein published “Madden vs.
Midland Funding, LLC”
• Tom Hiner was quoted in Asset Securitization
Report and National Mortgage News: “Mortgage
Servicers Resume Securitizing Repayment Rights”
• Melanie Finkelstein published “Mortgage
Regulatory Update: TRID-Related Changes to
Section 404 Notice”
• Tom Hiner was a panelist on the “Investing
in MSRs” panel at the 21st Annual ABS East
conference in Miami
• Melanie Finkelstein published “Know Before You
Owe: TILA RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule
(TRID) and Secondary Market Considerations”
• Brent Lewis and Eric Burner published “Reminder—
Compliance Date for RMBS Risk Retention”
Structured Finance and Securitization: 2015 Year in Review
. Rankings and Awards
Our structured finance lawyers are consistently ranked among the top legal advisers for mortgage-backed securities
and asset-backed securities in industry rankings and league tables, including most recently:
• Ranked nationally by Chambers USA for Capital Markets: Securitization, with Kevin Buckley, Tom Hiner and
Mike Nedzbala all receiving individual rankings
• Ranked nationally by Legal 500 for Structured Finance, and Steven Becker, Kevin Buckley, Eric Burner, Tom
Hiner, Mike Nedzbala and Amy Williams were singled out with client accolades
• Ranked as a Top Underwriter Counsel and Issuer Counsel for US ABS/MBS by Asset-Backed Alert
• Recognized as a “Leading Law Firm in US Securitization Industry” by Asset-Backed Alert
• Vicki Tucker was elected as Secretary of the ABA Business Law Section
• George Howell was elected Chair of the ABA Tax Section
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. Newly Promoted Partners
We are delighted to announce the recent promotion of Andrew Blanchard in Richmond and
Brent Lewis in New York to partner.
Andrew Blanchard
Richmond
ablanchard@hunton.com
804.788.8385
Andrew concentrates on structured finance, securitization and corporate finance
transactions. During 2015, he represented lenders and underwriters in a variety
of servicer advance financing transactions, including term note issuances
totaling $3.4 billion. He received undergraduate and law degrees from the
University of Richmond.
Brent Lewis
New York
blewis@hunton.com
212.309.1006
Brent represents issuers, underwriters, servicers, originators and other
market participants in public and private securitizations involving residential
and commercial mortgage loans. He has been involved in the Freddie Mac
Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR®) debt notes transactions since the
commencement of the program in 2013, including all eight of the STACR
transactions that closed in 2015.
He received an undergraduate degree from
Dickinson College and a law degree from Villanova University.
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Structured Finance and Securitization: 2015 Year in Review
. About Us
Hunton & Williams LLP is a global law firm with more than 800 lawyers practicing from 19 offices across the
United States, Europe and Asia. The firm’s global experience extends to myriad legal disciplines, including
corporate transactions and securities law, energy and infrastructure, international and government relations,
regulatory law, privacy and cybersecurity, labor and employment and commercial litigation.
Please visit www.hunton.com for more information on our industries and practices.
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Atlanta • Austin • Bangkok • Beijing • Brussels • Charlotte • Dallas • Houston • London • Los Angeles
McLean • Miami • New York • Norfolk • Raleigh • Richmond • San Francisco • Tokyo • Washington
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