Benzinga | Mar 25, 2021 08:15AM EDT

Redwood Trust Announces Partnership With dv01 To Expand Data Transparency Reach in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Market

dv01, a leading capital markets fintech driving technological innovation and loan-level transparency in structured finance, today announced it has partnered with Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT), a leader in expanding access to housing for homebuyers and renters, to promote data transparency and accountability within the private label residential mortgage-backed securities ("RMBS") market.

Through this partnership, dv01 will serve as Loan Data Agent ("LDA") for Redwood Trust's future Sequoia securitizations, including the recently completed SEMT 2021-1--a prime RMBS transaction backed by $527 million of Select jumbo loans. As LDA, dv01 will receive loan-level data directly from the underlying servicers and other transaction participants to cleanse, validate, standardize, and aggregate for monthly reporting. Qualified platform users will then have access to reliable data and fully integrated analytics tools to monitor the performance of these Sequoia securitizations, free of charge. dv01 will onboard approximately 40 historical Sequoia securitizations, with an aggregate notional value at issuance of $17.3 billion, to its platform for existing investors to easily access, bringing dv01's total analytics coverage to 61% of all non-agency prime jumbo RMBS deals issued since 2019. Sequoia transactions completed from January 1, 2018 to date, including SEMT 2021-1, are now available on the dv01 platform.

"On the heels of our recent acquisition of Pragmic Technologies and expansion into auto ABS, this partnership is further evidence of dv01's continued growth and innovation," said Perry Rahbar, Founder and CEO at dv01. "By collaborating with Redwood Trust, an established leader in the non-agency RMBS sector, we hope to propel the industry toward a more efficient and transparent market, boosting investor confidence."

In addition to dv01's Securitization Reporting offering, Redwood Trust will also leverage dv01's Tape Cracker and Portfolio Surveillance products to modernize the workflow in its Residential business. Tape Cracker is a data wrangling tool powered by machine learning that streamlines the entire loan evaluation process by normalizing data and offering built-in tools for analyzing loan tapes, and Portfolio Surveillance is an advanced analytics solution for managing and monitoring loan portfolios that empowers users to rapidly respond to the market, meet business needs, discover trends, and minimize risk.

"Investing in technology to scale our business is a key strategic initiative at Redwood. Our partnership with dv01 marks another milestone on our path to implementing innovative technologies that provide secure, automated workflows to Redwood and our stakeholders," said Fred Matera, Head of Residential at Redwood Trust. "Partnering with dv01 enables us to offer unparalleled market transparency into underlying loan performance within our existing Sequoia securitizations. With a reputation built on trust and reliability, we believe providing this level of visibility into our loan data will further advance Redwood's reputation as a trusted leader in the RMBS market."