Even Under Trump, Would the CFPB Be Invincible? If businessman Donald Trump wins the White House in November, the CFPB would be in the Republican’s crosshairs for sure. But the bureau’s recent consumer fraud case against Wells Fargo for opening up roughly two million deposit and credit card accounts without authorization has caused such outrage nationwide that it may very well give the controversial regulator a “shield” of sorts. At least that’s what we’ve been…
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a solid 10.0 percent increase in production of single-family mortgage-backed securities in August, and there are signs that the GSEs are regaining some lost market share as well. The two GSEs issued $91.59 billion of single-family MBS last month, their highest monthly total since August 2013. Interestingly, most of the increase came from rising refinance activity. The flow of refi loans is up 14.0 percent at Fannie and 8.7 percent at Freddie, while purchase-mortgage business rose 9.9 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively, at the two firms. Two thirds of the way through 2016, GSE single-family business was still down slightly from the first eight months of last year.
Credit unions and some others in the industry are apprehensive about the changes the GSEs’ Common Securitization Platform will bring as the date nears for Freddie Mac to issue the first mortgage-backed security on the system. The National Association of Federal Credit Unions wrote the Federal Housing Finance Agency last week citing concerns about the CSP’s potential impact on credit unions. While the trade group said it is not opposed to creating a more efficient platform with an open architecture to support multiple issuers, Ann Kossachev, NAFCU’s counsel, worries about a level playing field. “NAFCU and its member credit unions are concerned that the consolidation of the securitization programs will make it more difficult for...
The analysis, the first of its kind, was based on new Inside Mortgage Finance surveys that drew results from a broad sample of banks and nonbanks of all size classifications.
Bank and thrift holdings of non-agency ABS fell slightly during the second quarter, but the industry is not backing away from the consumer credit space. Depositories prefer to hold these assets in unsecuritized form on their balance sheets. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data shows that banks and thrifts held $130.98 billion of non-mortgage ABS at the end of June. That was down 0.7 percent from March and represented the 10th consecutive quarterly decline since the end of 2013, when the industry’s ABS holdings hit their all-time peak. According to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the supply of non-mortgage ABS debt outstanding actually rose...[Includes two data tables]
Republicans running the House Financial Services Committee had enough votes, in spite of one defection, to push through a legislative markup this week a comprehensive overhaul of the Dodd-Frank Act that would eliminate the pending risk-retention requirements for ABS other than residential mortgages, among other provisions. The GOP’s preferred legislative vehicle is H.R. 5983, the Financial CHOICE (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs) Act, dropped in the legislative hopper a week ago by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, committee chairman. “Many post mortems of the financial crisis posit...
The average daily trading volume in agency MBS fell to $195.0 billion in August, the second weakest reading of the year, according to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. The peak came the month before at $219.3 billion, and the low was back in March at $189.4 billion, not too far from the August volume. It’s...
Regulations and practices in the mortgage market will help protect investors in MBS backed by residential mortgages from marketplace lenders, according to Moody’s Investors Service. However, it’s not clear if the protections will be enough to offset the rating penalties often applied to originators and assets that lack historical performance records. Moody’s published its analysis last week, noting that while no residential MBS has been issued by a marketplace lender as yet, the firm expects issuance at some point. Marketplace lenders – the most prominent of which is Social Finance – connect...
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