Category: Structured Thinking

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Little-Noticed SEC Hedging Curb Imperils Banks, Financial Firms

By Michael Bright Published on 4/10/2023:  RealClearPolitics Full text also below. The massive bank failures in recent weeks were due largely to a lack of solid hedging strategies – an important way for financial institutions to handle risk. Despite that, the Securities and Exchange Commission is quickly and quietly implementing a provision of the Dodd-Frank […]

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SEC Conflicts of Interest Proposal Should Be Delayed

By Michael Bright The Securities and Exchange Commission has its heart in the right place as it moves to prevent transactions in which financial institutions bet against – or short – asset-backed securities that they also put together or underwrite. Such deliberate conflicts of interest, which caused the markets to shudder a couple times not […]

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Inching Away from Debt Ceiling Calamity

The debt ceiling debate echoes certain dynamics of the 2011 fight. Read SFA CEO Michael Bright’s perspective on how this time is different – and how compromise could be reached – as published in RealClearPolicy. Read more.

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Economic Soft Landing Still on Track

By Michael Bright The latest data lends credence to our belief expressed here that the economy is on path to have a light recession rather than a hard or tough one. The most important indicator was the Consumer Price Index announced during the week of February 13. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic reported that […]

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A Hard Yes on a Soft Landing

The Federal Reserve is in the later stages of one of its most aggressive interest-rate tightening campaigns in decades. Even though the Fed woefully underappreciated the risk of inflation at the beginning of 2022, it has done an admirable job of catching up. Several signs suggest it is on track to achieve its stated goal […]

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Where RMBS can take sustainable investing

On July 13, HousingWire published an Op-ed by SFA CEO Michael Bright where he outlines steps the RMBS industry can take to promote ESG growth amid strong demand. Bright believes, “For the RMBS market to embrace the opportunity in front of it, building from what we already do well and staying laser-focused on transparency and data […]

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The larger risk from a barely noticed CFPB lawsuit

SFA CEO Michael Bright discusses how the developments in a court case involving a group of related student loan trusts and the CFPB could present a fundamental risk to all consumer securitizations. In the case at hand, CFPB v National Collegiate Student Loan Trust, the CFPB is attempting to assert that a trust has liability for the […]