The GOP housing-finance reform bill being developed in the Senate would keep the current standards for loan limits that apply to the government-sponsored enterprises, according to a draft of the bill released last week. Boosters of the non-agency mortgage market have long called for lower GSE loan limits, but Congress hasn’t shown an appetite to reduce them. The bill was drafted by Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, and many Democrats have withheld support to this point, including ...

A bill introduced in the Senate last week with some bipartisan support would allow real estate investment trusts to regain access to funding from Federal Home Loan Banks. The bill would overturn a 2016 rule from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that restricted captive insurance companies from being FHLBank members. Before the FHFA rule took effect, a number of REITs established captive insurers to gain access to FHLBank advances, which come with better terms than ...

PennyMac Financial will resume originating jumbo mortgages in the correspondent channel this year, the lender announced this week. And jumbos will be offered in the broker channel operations recently launched by PennyMac. The House approved a bill this week that would shrink the potential market for non-qualified mortgages. H.R. 1153, the Mortgage Choice Act, was approved on a 280-131 vote with some bipartisan support. The legislation would ... [Includes two briefs]

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued $102.48 billion of single-family MBS in January, a modest 6.9 percent downturn from the previous month, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis.

A bank owned by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America is preparing to issue a $381.5 million jumbo MBS, according to presale reports published this week. Only two other banks are actively issuing jumbo MBS: JPMorgan Chase and Flagstar Bank.

Braddock Financial, a modest investment fund based in Denver, sees plentiful opportunities as a credit investor in a structured-finance market that officials think is still in the early stages of recovery.

Citadel Servicing’s foray into securitizing home loans that don’t meet the qualified-mortgage test is now slated for some time in March, after multiple delays, according to sources familiar with the company’s operations. The nonbank’s first nonprime deal is expected to be roughly $150 million.

A subsidiary of Tesla issued its first ABS backed by auto leases this week and the electric car manufacturer plans to issue more deals going forward. The $608.1 million deal received AAA ratings from Moody’s Investors Service even though concerns were raised about various issues involving the transaction.

The Federal Home Loan Banks may be required to jointly establish at least one entity to aggregate conventional mortgages and use a new government program to issue guaranteed MBS under draft legislation from Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN.

At yearend, 28.8 percent of FHA mortgages in Puerto Rico were in some stage of delinquency, including 15.8 percent that were 90 days or more past due. These ultra-high late-payment readings – courtesy of hurricanes Maria and Irma – have caught the attention of both Ginnie Mae and the FHA. …