Freddie Mac faced criticism last week from consumer advocates for the way the government-sponsored enterprise’s automated underwriting system handles certain functions involving merged credit reports and Equifax. A story in the New York Times this week detailed how Equifax acted as a “gatekeeper” for certain borrower credit information in Freddie’s Loan Quality Advisor. LQA is a risk and eligibility assessment tool that evaluates loan data to help lenders determine if ...

Ocwen Financial, which continues to work through an array of regulatory settlements, is shuttering its wholesale-broker division, a move that’s sparking speculation about its future as an originator. The strategy shift is curious on several fronts: the disclosure was buried at the bottom of a recent regulatory filing on state settlements; broker-wholesale production accounts for roughly half of the company’s originations; and management not too long ago expressed a desire to ...

Most of the final amendments the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made to its mortgage servicing rules kicked in late this week, and the biggest challenge firms will have to contend with is the increased complexity. In an interview this week with Inside Mortgage Finance, Nanci Weissgold, a partner with the Alston & Bird law firm in Washington, DC, highlighted which provisions took effect this week and those coming on line next spring, and what they mean for ...

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is getting good reviews from mortgage industry participants regarding his congressional testimony late last week on program reforms, particularly his strategy for dealing with FHA exposure under the False Claims Act. Industry observers noted an improvement in Carson’s knowledge and understanding of HUD programs since taking office in March. His nomination by President Trump was controversial because ...

The mortgage interest deduction, or MID, used to rank with apple pie and motherhood for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and homebuilders. But against the backdrop of an intense effort by Republicans to overhaul the tax code, some groups are showing more flexibility on the issue. Complicating matters is that neither the Trump administration nor key players on Capitol Hill have been explicit or consistent in what they want. The Mortgage Bankers Association wrote to the ...

New production of non-mortgage ABS slackened during the third quarter as several key sectors retreated from unusually strong volume numbers in the previous three-month period. A new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis reveals total ABS production fell 16.7 percent from the second quarter to $49.43 billion. That brought year-to-date volume to $162.18 billion, up 15.5 percent from the first nine months of 2016. Unless production tanks in the ... [Includes two data charts]

Arch Capital Group is set to issue a mortgage-insurance linked note transaction. Unlike two other re-insurance deals from a similar shelf, Bellemeade Re 2017-1 received credit ratings, expanding the investor base for the transaction. A mezzanine tranche of the deal received preliminary BBB ratings from Morningstar Credit Rat-ings this week. Mortgages delivered to the government-sponsored enterprises with an unpaid principal balance of $29.30 billion are included in the transaction ...

The securities industry is backing Ginnie Mae’s stepped-up efforts to curb loan churning and rapid refinancing of VA loans and expressed its concern over how such improper lending practices might affect borrowers and MBS investors. In a letter this week to Michael Bright, Ginnie’s chief operating officer and acting president, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association lauded the agency’s investigation of aggressive refinancing of VA loans. The practice has ...

Citadel Servicing Corp. has talked about issuing its first non-prime MBS, possibly late this year, and this week cleared a hurdle when it received lender and servicer ratings from Morningstar. According to sources close to the company, the anticipated MBS – backed by newly originated loans that do not meet the qualified-mortgage test – could be as large as $250 million. Nomura is assisting Citadel with the deal, a source noted, adding that the bond may not actually hit the market until ...

It’s been a busy year in whole loan trading for MIAC Capital Markets. The advisory firm has sold $1.2 billion of product year to date, almost double what it did all of last year. And the way things stand today, 2018 could be even better. According to Steve Harris, managing director for MIAC, the reason for the pickup in activity is simple: growth in non-agency lending, coupled with stronger demand from depositories for loans that can help them meet Community Reinvestment Act requirements ...