Securitization Forum Provides Guidance on Modifications.

New York -- The American Securitization Forum provided subprime lending guidance on issues that included loan modification and urged caution on the possible expansion of mortgage assignee liability at its annual meeting here last week.

In regard to assignee liability, the ASF stressed in a 39-page June position paper that it believes responsibility should be focused on the primary market but it also suggested a national framework to the extent that the secondary market may be further affected.

The Federal Reserve on June 14 plans to hold a Homeownership and Equity Protection Act-related hearing that secondary market participants believe could result in the expansion of the law. (ASF officials said the paper was not necessarily in response to this but to asset liability concerns in general.)

Secondary market players generally do not make or buy HOEPA loans and an expansion of the law could cause more of them to abandon another defined section of the market, some speakers said. There may be some question as to whether this is truly regulators' intent - if it is, however, this may be acceptable to them, said Faith Schwartz, a senior vice president at B&C lender Option One Mortgage Corp. in a session on subprime ...