The biggest source of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business during the first five months of 2014 came from loans with high credit scores and loan-to-value ratios that don’t require mortgage insurance, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Some 34.0 percent of mortgages securitized by the two government-sponsored enterprises through May of this year had credit scores of 740 or higher and LTV ratios ranging from 61 percent to 80 percent ... [Includes one data chart]

The bloodletting in Bank of America's servicing division continued this month with the megabank giving pink slips to hundreds of workers.

We continue to hear plenty of talk about mortgage mergers and acquisitions with deal announcements likely to come between early July and late August.

Commercial banks and thrifts held $172.6 billion of non-mortgage ABS as of the end of the first quarter, a 10.2 percent drop from December 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call report data. The industry’s top ABS investor, TD Bank, increased...[Includes one data chart]

Even though the risk-sharing targets set for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been all but met this year, expect the two government-sponsored enterprises to come to market with risk-sharing transactions at least once a quarter, with the likely result of both firms exceeding the 2014 target “by at least” $20 billion, predicted an analysis by Wells Fargo Securities. The FHFA’s 2014 Conservatorship Scorecard directs the GSEs to reduce taxpayers’ risks by increasing the role of private capital in the market via several strategies, including tripling the credit risk transfer goals to $90 billion in 2014 from $30 billion in 2013. Year-to-date, Fannie Mae’s Connecticut Avenue Securities program has already achieved...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency late last week announced it reached a nearly $100 million settlement with RBS Securities to settle allegations tied to non-agency MBS bought by Freddie Mac from 2005 to 2007, but the deal represents just a fraction of the firm’s remaining exposure. The $99.5 million settlement only resolves claims against RBS in FHFA v. Ally Financial Inc. in the Southern District of New York. Ally Financial is the successor company to GMAC-RFC, a now defunct non-agency MBS issuer. Last week’s deal is...

About $179.6 billion of newly-originated home mortgages were securitized during the first quarter of 2014, resulting in a securitization rate of 76.4 percent, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis. The securitization rate was down slightly from 78.5 percent for all of last year and 78.8 percent during the fourth quarter. Historically, the rate peaked in 2009, when 84.4 percent of new originations were securitized. In the conventional conforming market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization volume ($126.4 billion) actually exceeded...[Includes one data chart]

Secondary mortgage market participants generally support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed “right to cure” a mortgage that inadvertently breaches the qualified mortgage 3 percent points-and-fees cap – but they want to see it made more assignee-friendly. Earlier this year, the CFPB proposed allowing a limited cure for a points-and-fee violation if the creditor in good faith intended to originate the loan as a QM under the bureau’s ability-to-repay rule and the loan otherwise meets the requirements of a QM. A refund of the overage would have to be paid to the consumer and the party seeking to cure the violation (either creditor or assignee) would have to follow certain policies and procedures for post-consummation review of loans. In its comment letter to the CFPB, Fannie Mae suggested...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has largely wrapped up its enforcement on structured finance issues related to the financial crisis, according to current and former officials at the federal regulator. The SEC’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit is now focusing on more recent issues in the structured finance sector. “The unit has now shifted its attention to the next frontier, and I expect it to zero in on the structuring, rating, valuation, sale, and use of other types of complex financial products, such as commercial MBS, structured notes and credit default swaps,” Andrew Ceresney, the director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in May. Stephen Crimmins, a partner at the law firm of K&L Gates who previously worked at the SEC for 14 years, said...

The jumbo MBS market sprung to life this month, just before the close of the second quarter. Three firms are scheduled to issue jumbo MBS at the end of this week, and the market’s biggest player, Redwood Trust, is close to its first new issuance since pricing a deal at the end of March. While jumbo mortgage securitization is currently attractive to issuers, industry analysts suggest that volume will remain limited this year due to a number of factors, including a lack of strong demand from a wide range of investors, incentives for banks to hold jumbos in portfolio and continued dominance by the government-sponsored enterprises. “I think issuance will remain...