In an effort to convince large investors to buy AAA tranches of non-agency MBS, the benchmark transaction under development with help from the Treasury Department will include a deal agent or transaction manager. “Part of the centerpiece [of the non-agency MBS benchmark transaction] is around the role of a new player in these transactions, an independent deal agent that represents the interests of the investors,” said Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury ...

The market impact of high prepayment speeds in recent months has been muted due to the Federal Reserve’s large holdings of agency MBS serviced by nonbanks, according to industry analysts. However, the increased presence of nonbank servicers in agency MBS has prompted adjustments by investors. Loans in agency MBS serviced by Quicken Loans and Provident Financial, among other nonbank servicers, have recently been prepaying at ...

The Blackstone Group, an investment banking powerhouse, has purchased Gateway Funding Services, Horsham, PA, and plans to use the nonbank as its platform to ramp up originations, servicing investments and MBS issuance, according to industry officials familiar with the situation. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press this week, the Blackstone Group had not responded to a media inquiry on the matter. Gateway also could not be reached, but according to ...

High guarantee fees and loan-level pricing adjustments charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not enough to counteract lingering MBS investor mistrust and draw private players back into the housing finance market, according to a top industry official. “The Federal Housing Finance Agency seems to believe that by raising costs for loans purchased or guaranteed by the government-sponsored enterprises, they can lure private sector capital back to the mortgage market ...

The Community Home Lenders Association wants a portion of the quarterly profits that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac give to the Treasury Department put in a reserve account to help smaller mortgage lenders, according to a recent letter the trade group wrote to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. The group contends that the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement funds should be set aside in a reserve account to capitalize a cash window for smaller mortgage lenders that would ...

Vintage prime adjustable-rate mortgages went delinquent at a rate 30 percent higher when they were securitized privately, according to an economist with the Federal Reserve System. The study was based on mortgages originated in 2005 and 2006, at the height of the aggressive underwriting in the non-agency mortgage market. “We find that private-securitized loans perform worse than observably similar, non-securitized loans, which provides evidence for adverse selection ...

In the jumbo MBS sector, mortgage firms issued $4.60 billion of bonds in 1Q, a hefty 20.3 percent increase from 4Q and more than triple the volume posed during the first three months of 2014.

Laurie Goodman, director of the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center, is among those who support Treasury’s push to include a deal agent in the benchmark non-agency MBS.

Use of a deal agent in new non-agency mortgage-backed securities will help convince large investors to return to the market, according to industry participants. The benchmark non-agency MBS in the works with help from the Treasury Department will include a deal agent, according to Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury on housing finance policy. At a talk this week hosted by the Financial Services Roundtable and CoreLogic, Stegman noted that Treasury continues to ...

The latest jumbo mortgage-backed security from Two Harbors Investment is set to have the lowest credit enhancement levels of any deal issued this year, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Strong performance and underwriting characteristics along with repeat issuance appears to have helped decrease credit enhancement requirements for the transaction. The $241.06 million Agate Bay Mortgage Trust 2015-3 received a preliminary AAA rating ... [Includes one data chart]