The Mortgage Bankers Association recently warned the CFPB that a move by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to lower loan limits for the government-sponsored enterprises could negatively affect qualified mortgage status and borrower access to credit. “Given that we are in the early, fragile stages of a housing recovery, we urge the bureau to consider additional refinements to the QM requirements to mitigate the combined impact of the rule and the FHFA’s action on loan limits,” the MBA said. The trade group noted that the QM rule...

The American Bankers Association recently urged the CFPB to withdraw a generic clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act for “information collections” – intake forms, questionnaires and other documents – related to its consumer complaint system, arguing that the request covers “substantial policy issues” that should be subject to public review and comment. Specifically, the CFPB is seeking generic clearances for information collections that will permit it to pilot new consumer complaint and inquiry intake forms; to gather...

As of June 30, 2013, the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2013, the CFPB had received $323.2 million in transfers from the Federal Reserve, far below the $598 million the bureau is entitled to in funding under the Dodd-Frank Act, according to the CFPB’s latest financial update. Of the $308 million it spent, approximately $140.2 million was allocated to employee compensation and benefits for the 1,226 employees on board by the end of the quarter. Other than payroll expenses, the largest obligations for the quarter were...

Thursday, Sept. 12: Now that Richard Cordray is “street legal” as the confirmed director of the CFPB, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, has decided to invite him before the panel to testify on the bureau’s third semi-annual report to Congress, which was released back in late March and covers the period from July 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2012. “The director of the CFPB is required by law to appear before the committee on a semi-annual basis to deliver a report on the CFPB,” says a hearing notice on the...

The firm’s deal will be financed with bonds that are expected to have a five-year maturity, a floating-rate coupon and a rating from a major rating service.

Securities issuers won a major victory as the revised proposed rule on risk retention issued by federal regulators last week removed the requirement for a premium capture cash reserve account. The highly controversial PCCRA was replaced with a fair value calculation requirement for retention which regulators said will increase the value of retained risk compared with the original proposal. “The ASF is extremely pleased to see the elimination of the premium capture cash reserve account provisions from the re-proposed rule,” said Tom Deutsch, executive director of the American Securitization Forum. “The provisions would have completely eliminated the economic incentives of securitizers to issue residential MBS and commercial MBS.” The original proposal generally measured...

New issuance of agency single-family MBS fell in August to its lowest monthly total of the year, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae generated a total of $130.88 billion of new single-family MBS last month, down 9.3 percent from July. It was the lowest monthly production volume since December 2012. New issuance by the government-sponsored enterprises fluctuated sharply at that time as lenders jockeyed around rising guaranty fees and the implementation of more favorable reps and warranties policies. All three agencies saw...[Includes one data chart]

If the Federal Housing Finance Agency lowers loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac next year, Redwood Trust says it is ready, willing and able to pick up the slack. “If that happens, Redwood will step up and fund those loans, no problem,” said Mike McMahon, managing director of the real estate investment trust, the most active jumbo MBS issuer in the non-agency market. The executive told Inside MBS & ABS that he’s certain that Redwood would have plenty of company as well. “There will be little or no disruption in the market,” he said. According to McMahon, in 2012 lenders produced...

The GSEs continued to see solid increases in purchase-mortgage business, which increased by almost 7 percent from July to August. It was the fifth straight monthly gain for the two.

Revised risk-retention requirements proposed last week by federal regulators for certain non-mortgage ABS and commercial MBS are somewhat looser than the standards initially proposed in 2011. Perhaps most significantly, “blended pools” would be allowed for commercial mortgages, commercial real estate loans and auto loans, allowing issuers to mix qualifying loans and non-qualifying loans in the same security. Securitized loans that don’t meet qualifying underwriting standards will be subject to the 5 percent risk retention as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Blended pools would be eligible for reduced risk retention, as low as 2.5 percent. “The agencies believe...