The world’s longest serving president, Fidel Castro, resigned as president and commander-in-chief of Cuba after almost 50 years. Is he another casualty of the mortgage market? Probably not, but speaking of resignations, the chief executive of the nation’s largest bond insurer, MBIA, also resigned his post. Bond insurers have come under intense pressure because of the threat of large losses on mortgage-linked securities that they have insured.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), publishes “Good Delivery Guidelines” for To-Be-Announced (TBA) trading of Mortgage-backed Securities (MBS) pools issued by Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) and Ginnie Mae. The TBA market facilitates the forward trading of MBS issued by GSEs and Ginnie Mae by creating parameters under which mortgage pools can be considered fungible and thus do not need to be explicitly known at the time a trade is initiated – hence the name “To Be Announced.”  The TBA market is the most liquid, and consequently the most important secondary market for mortgage loans. SIFMA will keep the maximum TBA eligible original loan balance at current levels and clarify several long standing market practices for good delivery.  The current maximum original balance allowable for a loan on a one family property in a TBA eligible Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac pool is $417,000 in most states.  However, in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands the limit rises