Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to trim their retained investment portfolios in late 2015 with most of the focus on shrinking their non-agency MBS and holdings of their own securities. Freddie Mac’s retained mortgage portfolio declined 15.1 percent last year, ending at $346.91 billion, safely below the $359.3 billion cap set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The government-sponsored enterprise reduced its non-agency MBS holdings by $25.60 billion, or 38.8 percent, from its yearend 2014 level. While that included hefty declines in both subprime and Alt A MBS, the biggest decline, 41.3 percent, was...[Includes one data table]
A handful of recent and current U.S., European and international regulatory efforts “pose a serious threat to securitization as a critical source of funding for the real economy,” especially when taken together, a top securitization official told lawmakers in Washington, DC, this week. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, Richard Johns, executive director of the Structured Finance Industry Group, took on a handful of the industry’s most problematic regulatory initiatives. Among them were the liquidity ratio rules that U.S. regulators implemented in late 2014, and the new Basel III capital rules that were adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He also addressed...
“This was really gnarly and political,” said Redwood executive Marty Hughes. “I think the FHFA making this decision was just something that they wanted to get behind them.”
Originations of home-equity lines-of-credit are increasing along with the average size of the loans at origination. The expansion has occurred without a significant loosening of underwriting standards as combined loan-to-value ratios and other underwriting metrics for HELOCs remain much tighter in the current market compared with pre-2008 originations. An estimated $68.5 billion in home-equity loans were originated in the first three quarters of 2015, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, up 25 percent compared with the same span in 2014. The originations have been helped by increases to home prices and an improving job market. According to CoreLogic, the average size of HELOCs originated in the first three quarters of 2015 (measuring the line’s limit at origination) was...
The Mortgage Bankers Association and other industry groups are strongly urging the Department of Labor to reconsider a proposed rule updating overtime regulations that currently exclude mortgage loan officers and certain categories of employees from overtime compensation. Officials reiterated the MBA’s position, which it clearly spelled out in a joint letter with other financial services trade groups in September last year objecting to the DOL’s proposed rulemaking regarding overtime exemptions for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales and computer employees. Among other things, the MBA, American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, Financial Services Roundtable and The Clearing House cited...
Mortgage delinquency rates continued their upward trend in the fourth quarter of 2015 with the highest percentage of delinquencies recorded for the year, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index. About 5.98 percent of the $5.194 trillion in home loans covered in the survey were in some stage of default as of Dec. 31, 2015. That was up from 5.85 percent in the third quarter of last year, but down from the 6.53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. The number of loans that were more than 90 days late witnessed the largest uptick, growing from 1.62 percent to 1.71 percent. The only category that showed any kind of a decrease was...[Includes one data table]
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized its “no-action” policy towards market innovators that develop new financial services products, adopting its proposal largely unchanged. But industry experts think the new policy is not only useless but actually counterproductive in that it will likely discourage lenders from developing new loan products in an evolving mortgage market – not foster more innovation. This new policy – created under the CFPB’s Project Catalyst – “is designed to improve access to consumer financial products and services that promise substantial consumer benefits,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “We want to foster a consumer financial marketplace where companies develop safe, innovative products and approaches that can help make people’s lives better.” Under the policy, bureau staff would issue...
The odds are currently zero that Congress will find a legislative solution to the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year, which is causing anxiety for the man charged with being both conservator and regulator to the government-sponsored enterprises: Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Moreover, there is a growing concern among mortgage bankers that severe interest swings to the downside could cause a large net loss at Freddie in the first quarter of this year, a loss so large it will force the GSE to ask the U.S. Treasury for a draw on taxpayer funds. And it will happen...
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