September 21, 2017

Latest from Inside Mortgage Finance

Total jumbo originations rose by 11.8 percent from the previous quarter according to estimates from Inside Mortgage Finance

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Banks Continue Modest Gains in Mortgage-Production Market Share in Second Quarter, But Not the Giants

Depository institutions have been quietly regaining some market share from nonbanks over the past year, even though some of the largest banks continue to pull back, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Banks, savings institutions and credit unions accounted for 51.3 percent of the $356.85 billion of first-lien mortgage originations by the top 100 lenders during the second quarter. The group boosted its production volume by 19.2 percent from the first three months of the year, while the top 100 overall posted a 17.3 percent gain in volume. It marked...[Includes two data tables]

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Subservicing Contracts Continued to Grow Slowly In a Crowded Field That Could Lead to a Shakeout

Subservicing contracts topped $1.97 trillion at June 30, a 4.3 percent gain from March and a 28.2 percent jump over the past year, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Finance survey. Overall, roughly 19.9 percent of all residential loans are now being processed by these “outsourcing” vendors, who do not own the underlying strip of receivables and instead receive a portion of the servicing fee for doing all the grunt work. The subservicing sector continues...[Includes one data table]

Why Should Mortgage Lenders Go Digital? That’s Where the Customers Are, Pros Say

Much of the historical discussion about the mortgage industry going fully digital and adopting e-mortgages has revolved around cost savings, greater efficiencies, validating compliance and other benefits. But at the end of the day, the biggest reason is that lenders’ customer base is increasingly focused on digital technology, and lenders need to go where the borrowers are. “That’s where the consumers are, right? Finally, everybody’s going online to shop for most of their products, and mortgages are starting to happen the same way,” said Tim Anderson, director of eServices for DocMagic, during a webinar last week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. “They’re going out there looking for rates and pricing, they’re looking for real estate. If you want to capture that marketplace, you meet them out there in cyberspace.” Scott Stephen, president of the online division of Guaranteed Rate, noted...

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Inside The GSEs

GSE Seller Buybacks Edged Higher In Second Quarter, Pipeline Shrank

Mortgage lenders that sell loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a modest increase in the volume of loans they repurchased from the GSEs during the second quarter of 2017, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis of disclosure reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During the second quarter, lenders repurchased or made indemnifications on $244.44 million of single-family loans pooled in Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities. That was up 2.5 percent from the first three months of the year. On a year-to-date basis, seller buybacks totaled $483.01 million, a 14.5 percent drop from the first six months of 2016.

Inside MBS & ABS

Single-Family MBS Market Plugging Along, Banks And Overseas Investors Were Top Buyers in 2Q17

The supply of outstanding residential MBS in the market continued to grow at a measured pace during the second quarter of 2017, thanks to the robust single-family MBS machines at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. A total of $6.675 trillion of single-family MBS was outstanding as of the end of June, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. That was up 0.8 percent from the end of March, and it represented a record 64.0 percent of outstanding single-family mortgage debt. The Federal Reserve this week reported that home loan debt outstanding rose 0.7 percent to $10.430 trillion during the second quarter. All the MBS growth was...[Includes three data tables]

Inside Mortgage Trends

Mortgage Brokers Face Uphill Challenge in Jumbo Market, Make Gains Elsewhere

The wholesale-broker channel accounts for a relatively small amount of new business in the jumbo mortgage market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of lender surveys. Brokers accounted for just 4.6 percent of jumbo originations during the second quarter of 2017, although volume was up 13.7 percent from the first three months. The problem is that jumbo lending by a diverse sample of mortgage lenders was up 19.9 percent overall, meaning ... [Includes three data charts]

Inside Nonconforming Markets

Redwood Brings its First ‘Expanded Prime’ MBS With Higher Credit Enhancement

Redwood Trust is set to issue its first jumbo mortgage-backed security backed predominantly by loans with looser underwriting standards than the super-prime jumbos that have dominated the market. The planned $316.49 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2017-CH-1 includes many non-qualified mortgages and other loans that fall outside of Redwood’s traditional Select program. Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service assigned preliminary AAA ratings to the MBS last week ...

Inside FHA/VA Lending

Ginnie Mae to Take Action Against Illicit Refinancing of VA Mortgages

Rapid, aggressive refinancing of VA loans has made a comeback with some issuers using strategies to mask the practice and avoid possible penalties, including expulsion from the Ginnie Mae program, according to a top agency official. Responding to concerns raised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, Michael Bright, acting Ginnie Mae president and chief operations officer, said a joint Ginnie Mae/VA lender-abuse task force is analyzing monthly data and developing additional policy measures to deal with the problem. Bright confirmed the resurgence of inappropriate streamline refinancing in Ginnie securitization pools in recent weeks and has promised to crack down on the questionable practice. The problem surfaced last year when Ginnie Mae noticed unusually fast prepayment speeds in its mortgage-backed securities, particularly MBS backed by VA loans. Ginnie found that certain lenders and ...

Inside the CFPB

CFPB Eyeballing Equifax, Forced Arbitration an Issue

An official from the CFPB confirmed late last week the agency is looking into the massive data breach at Equifax, widely seen as the most significant, and potentially most damaging, so far in the age of the Internet. A spokesman for the bureau told this newsletter, “The CFPB has authority over the consumer reporting industry, including supervisory and enforcement authority. The CFPB is authorized to take enforcement action against institutions engaged in unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices, or that otherwise violate federal consumer financial laws. We are looking into the data breach and Equifax’s response, but cannot comment further at this time.” However, it’s not just the occurrence of the breach that bothers the consumer regulator. As part ...

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