This week, two non-bank lenders started marketing residential mortgage-backed notes. One of these, a A$250 million securitisation of mortgages over Australian residential properties originated by Columbus Capital, is the first Australian RMBS transaction made up entirely of mortgage loans to borrowers who are not permanent residents or citizens to be rated by S&P Global.The other RMBS transaction comprises seven classes of notes totalling A$750 million from Resimac.The Columbus Capital deal, according to a presale report from S&P Global, has a collateral pool consisting of Australian-dollar loans to non-Australian resident borrowers, secured by first registered mortgages over Australian residential properties. S&P has assigned preliminary ratings to six of the seven classes of residential mortgage-backed securities, to be issued by Perpetual Corporate Trust as trustee for Vermilion Trust No. 1 Bond Series 2019-1. S&P said the portfolio has a weighted average current loan-to-value ratio of about 56.6 per cent. The class A notes have been assigned preliminary ratings of AAA(sf) by S&PThe S&P report stated, further, that: "Credit support is provided by note subordination for all rated notes, lenders' mortgage insurance, excess spread, a yield reserve fully funded by Columbus Capital Pty Ltd before closing, and a loss reserve funded by excess spread."Among the weaknesses identified were that the entire collateral portfolio is comprised of residential mortgage loans to borrowers who are not permanent residents or citizens of Australia or New Zealand.  This portfolio is therefore exposed to borrowers residing in 13 locations, including China (85 per cent of the portfolio), Malaysia (8 per cent), Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. Unlike typical prime Australian RMBS, for which there is a deep pool of originators and transactions that can be used for comparison (ie, benchmark), there are limited comparisons available for non-resident portfolios, asserted the S&P per-sale report. Further, "with all of the borrowers in the portfolio residing outside Australia, there is less homogeneity in the underwriting of such loans compared with the underwriting of borrowers who are residents of Australia," S&P warned.Add into this mix lower levels of certainty for income verification, living expense determination, serviceability assessment, credit history checks, and differing standards in verification documents. In a further indication the securitisation market is on the recovery trail, the well-established non-bank financial institution Resimac is marketing its second Triomphe Trust Premier Series transaction for 2019. This RMBS transaction, with classes of notes totalling A$750 million offers mortgage-backed scheduled amortisation notes, soft-bullet notes and pass-through floating rate notes, backed by a pool of first-ranking Australian residential full-documentation mortgage loans originated by Resimac Limited.Fitch Ratings, in its pre-sale report, disclosed that the notes will be issued by Perpetual in its capacity of creator of a master trust deed.The top four tranches consist of two US dollar and two Australian dollar denominated tranches, all with expected ratings of AAA(EXP)sf and AAA (sf) by Fitch and S&P Global; and totalling USD 235 million and AUD$337 million, respectively. S&P rated all but the eleventh tranche, and noted in its presale report that investor loans comprise approximately 43