RHG limping along
RHG appears to think it may qualify to sell mortgage-backed securities to the Australian Office of Financial Management even though the firm is not originating any new loans and is ineligible.The version of the speech by John Kinghorn, chair of RHG, to yesterday's annual meeting of the former Rams Home Loans Group states that "despite being one of the largest participants in this [mortgage-backed] market, to date, your company has been unsuccessful in accessing this scheme."One criterion of the AOFM is that it will invest only in securities of firms that "intend to remain active in funding new mortgages through securitisation."RHG cannot undertake any lending before November 2010, following the sale of the Rams brand and franchise network to Westpac earlier this year.FirstMac, the only non-bank lender selected so far for the first sale of RMBS with the AOFM as cornerstone investor, has its bookbuild under way. Pricing is likely to be confirmed this afternoon.Meanwhile Kinghorn told the RHG meeting that it continued to extend the term of bank warehouses without having to sell mortgages, but made no mention of the margin the firm had to pay.