Non-conforming funding limps along
Lender Resimac Ltd yesterday completed only the second issue of non-conforming mortgage securities since the financial crisis, when it announced the pricing of Bastille Series 2011-1NC. The deal was upsized from A$200 million to $250 million.The $50 million A1 tranche, rated Aaa/AAA by Moody's and Standard & Poor's, was priced at 100 basis points over the one-month bank bill swap rate. The A1 notes have a weighted average life of 0.4 years.The only comparable deal is Pepper Homeloans' $260 million Pepper Residential Securities Trust No 8, issued last December. That deal's A1 tranche, which also had a weighted average life of 0.4 years, was priced at 130 basis points over the swap rate.Resimac's $90 million A2 tranche, with a weighted average life of two years and rated AAA, was priced at 180 basis points over swap. The corresponding tranche of the Pepper issue was priced at 190 basis points over swap.Resimac's $215 million A3 tranche, with a weighted average life of 4.9 years and a AAA rating, was priced at 215 basis points over swap. The corresponding tranche in the Pepper deal was priced at 220 basis points over swap.The collateral pool of the Resimac issue was made up of loans advanced to borrowers "who do not generally qualify for mortgage insurance" .Resimac's associate director of securitisation, Andrew Marsden, said the group planned to be a player in the non-conforming market.Marsden said: "We have strong support from our warehouse bank. This deal demonstrates that there is a viable market for these assets."Issuers of standard RMBS deals have been structuring their deals with tenors of three years and longer in their top tranches this year. A weighted average life of 0.4 years on Resimac's top tranche looks very short-term.Marsden said: "In the non-conforming market we need to offer a broad array of investment options, in terms of tenor and structural features."We are pleased with the level of interest."Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, meanwhile, priced its $1 billion offering of prime residential mortgage-backed securities, the Financial Review reports.The offering is the bank's first this year and contains $230 million in yen-denominated notes.The main $500 million A2 tranche was priced at 105 basis points above the bank bill rate.