The second whole-loan securities risk-transfer transaction from Freddie Mac received a rating from Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service said the $634.64 million deal included a number of improvements compared with non-agency MBS, which have a similar structure. Much like non-agency MBS, the deal was backed by mortgages and included senior and subor-dinate tranches available for purchase by investors. The M1 tranche of FWLS 2015-SC02 ...

A proposal from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to establish margin requirements for the to-be-announced MBS market was met with strong opposition from industry participants. While FINRA made some concessions to the industry in the proposal issued in October, many MBS traders warned of dire consequences if the proposed margin requirements take effect. The proposal from FINRA included a number of provisions, such as a 2.0 percent “maintenance” margin ...

FINRA made some concessions to the industry in the proposal issued in October, but many MBS traders warned of dire consequences if the proposed margin requirements take effect.

Commercial banks and savings institutions held a record $1.608 trillion of single-family MBS in portfolio as of the end of the third quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data. Banks and thrifts boosted their MBS holdings by 1.6 percent from the end of June, reaching a third consecutive record level. The gain pushed the industry’s market share of single-family MBS to an estimated 25.2 percent. Commercial banks were responsible for ... [Includes two data charts]

Bank of America grew its MBS holdings by a stunning 22.7 percent in the third quarter, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

Industry groups view recently-issued temporary guidelines for approving condominium projects for FHA finance as limited but positive, with the hope that other issues can be addressed in a more comprehensive rulemaking. Announced on Nov. 13, the interim guidelines took effect immediately and will remain for one year to give FHA sufficient time to implement more comprehensive condo rule changes. They include certain changes to the current lengthy and complex ...

As the housing market witnessed its best year yet in terms of recovering from the financial crisis, reports are pointing to continued progress in 2016, albeit at a slower pace. Pent-up demand coupled with sustained job growth and rising home values encouraged homeowners to put their homes on the market, a trend that Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said he expects to continue into 2016. “Sales activity in 2016 will once again be ...

A sense of urgency is starting to grip mortgage industry lobbyists and other officials as they try to push forward a wish list of legislative initiatives in the waning days of the first session of the 114th Congress. One fear is that if provisions they advocate aren’t enacted by year-end, presidential election year dynamics will keep anything substantive from being achieved in 2016. Ron Haynie, head of mortgage finance policy for the Independent Community Bankers of America ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new integrated disclosure rule didn’t cause a sig-nificant spike in delayed home sales in October, according to the latest Campbell/Inside MortgageFinance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule took effect near the beginning of October. Many industry participants predicted that the new rule would disrupt mortgage closings ...

Although loanDepot’s multi-million dollar initial public offering is off the table for now, the privately held nonbank is expected to test the market some time again – it’s just a matter of when. The deal was scuttled late last week, after questions were raised about how the company was valuing itself in the IPO documents. Another sidebar was the revelation in the S-1 filing that Chief Financial Officer Jon Frojen had resigned just weeks before loanDepot’s stock was slated to trade. In the S-1, loanDepot tries to dispel the notion that Frojen’s resignation had anything to do with the IPO, saying the change was made by management prior to the