Citadel Servicing Corp. continues to ready its first nonprime mortgage-backed security and received risk assessments from Morningstar Credit Ratings last week. The rating service evaluated Citadel as a lender and servicer, assigning it level-three rankings on a scale of one to four, with four being the worst. The assessment, along with a similar assessment by Fitch Ratings earlier this year, show that Citadel is taking steps toward issuing rated nonprime MBS. Sources close to ...

Banks tend to approve a much higher share of applications for jumbo mortgages than nonbanks, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets based on new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. In 2016, the denial rate for applications for jumbo mortgages was 18.6 percent. The rate tracks total loan applications for jumbo mortgages last year (495,213) and denied applications. The calculation excludes withdrawn applications and ... [Includes one data chart]

Providers of third-party due diligence services for non-agency mortgages are considering standardizing portions of the review and reporting process, according to Fitch Ratings. The rating service hosted a roundtable with a number of due diligence firms this month and provided some details on the meeting last week. “Participants agreed that increased focus on consensus where appropriate benefits the market as it mitigates pressures that third-party review firms may be ...

As Congress works on legislation aimed at reforming the roles of the government-sponsored enterprises, provisions regarding practices in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market should be included in the legislation, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Kevin Chavers, a managing director at BlackRock, testified on behalf of SIFMA at a hearing this week by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance ...

Underwriting standards for the mortgages included in prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities in the third quarter were largely unchanged from the types of loans seen in the market the past year, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The average credit score on prime non-agency MBS issued in the third quarter was 770.3, down from 772.3 the previous quarter but up from 766.4 in the third quarter of 2016. Average debt-to-income ... [Includes one data chart]

Investors in jumbo mortgage-backed securities face relatively low exposure to potential losses related to fires in California, according to an analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service said 2.9 percent of the outstanding mortgages in post-crisis jumbo MBS rated by Moody’s are in counties affected by the recent fires. And while some borrowers may suffer losses because of insufficient insurance coverage, Moody’s said hazard insurance and servicers’ ... [Includes two briefs]

FHA and VA loan performance deteriorated during the third quarter of 2017, a period when the Ginnie Mae servicing market continued to expand. Ginnie had a record $1.749 trillion of single-family mortgage-backed securities outstanding at the nine-month mark in 2017, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside FHA/VA Lending. That was up 2.2 percent from mid-year and 8.5 percent higher than September 2016. Ginnie servicing has been the fastest-growing part of the market for the past few years. That’s largely because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac typically see more refinance business, which tends to churn the supply of servicing outstanding more than grow it. The VA side of the government-insured market again was the fastest-growing component, as the dollar volume of VA loans in Ginnie pools rose 3.7 percent during the third quarter. That was more than double the growth rate in the ... [Charts]

The FHA lost ground to private mortgage insurers in the purchase-mortgage market during the third quarter of 2017, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance.The government-sponsored enterprises securitized $64.59 billion of purchase mortgages with private MI in the third quarter, up 28.5 percent from the prior quarter. This far greater than the 9.5 percent increase in FHA purchase loans delivered into Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities during the same period. Although the FHA program remained a favorite among first-time homebuyers, private mortgage insurers saw a substantial gain in the segment. In the third quarter, first-time homebuyers comprised 74.1 percent of FHA purchase loans, but the dollar volume of such loans pooled in Ginnie MBS rose just 9.1 percent, data showed. On the other hand, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw their insured first-timer ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will review its current lender-certification process and defect taxonomy to address industry concerns about costly penalties and settlements arising out of False Claims Act lawsuits. In remarks at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in Denver this week, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said the review would benefit greatly from feedback by lenders and other stakeholders in response to President Trump’s directive to all federal agencies to eliminate burdensome and duplicative regulations. Carson said HUD’s immediate concern is bringing back lenders that have exited the FHA single-family program or limited participation because of the undue risks they face from FCA enforcement. Lenders need clarity in what HUD expects from them in terms of lending and reduced exposure to outsized liability from immaterial errors, the ...

Brian Montgomery, President Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary for housing and FHA commissioner, reiterated his commitment to fight fraud and misrepresentation in FHA lending but wondered whether the Department of Justice had gone too far in using the False Claims Act as an enforcement tool against lenders. Testifying during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Montgomery expressed concern whether the DOJ and the Department of Housing and Urban Development had been adversarial towards lenders in their efforts to stem taxpayer losses and protect the FHA insurance fund. In prepared testimony, the nominee said the government must do better in providing clarity to encourage lenders to make FHA-insured loans and entice those that have exited for fear of exposure and liability to return to the ...