Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reduced their combined mortgage investment portfolio by 13.7 percent last year by focusing on less-liquid assets. The two government-sponsored enterprises still had $821.7 billion of mortgages and MBS on their books at the end of the year. Freddie reported that it sold $16.5 billion of less-liquid assets such as unsecuritized mortgages, multifamily assets and non-agency MBS. At the end of the year, some 59 percent of its portfolio was designated as less liquid, down from 62 percent at the end of 2013. The Federal Housing Finance Agency in 2013 directed...[Includes one data chart]
The European Commission last week requested comments on a framework for simple, transparent and standardized securitization that would apply to issuance in the European Union. A number of other non-U.S. regulators are considering similar proposals, prompting MBS and ABS participants in the U.S. to call for coordination among international regulators. The EC said its priority is to create a sustainable market for high-quality securitization without repeating the mistakes made before the financial crisis. “A high-quality EU securitization framework will promote further integration of EU financial markets, help diversify funding sources and unlock capital, making it easier for banks to lend to households and businesses,” the EC said. The European regulator stressed...
Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency has yet to tip its hand on where it might be headed regarding guaranty fees, most of the industry is betting on no change at all – or possibly a slight reduction, according to interviews conducted by Inside MBS & ABS over the past two weeks. Moreover, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac themselves are playing a key role in the decision-making process, at least that’s what Freddie CEO Donald Layton said recently. “Guaranty fees are...
Commercial banks and thrifts added $12.2 billion of agency single-family MBS to their investment portfolios during the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis of call-report data. Banks and thrifts held $1.539 trillion of MBS on their books at the end of last year, a slight 0.3 percent increase from the third quarter. Bank/thrift holdings were up 2.2 percent from the end of 2013. Growth in agency mortgage securities was...[Includes two data charts]
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen indicated this week that the central bank ultimately plans on holding few, if any, mortgage-related securities on its balance sheet. It seems unlikely there will be much in the way of actual sales of agency MBS by the Fed, which leaves run-off as the method of choice to drain the central bank’s portfolio. Delivering her semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony this week on Capitol Hill, the Fed chief said the FOMC intends to adjust its monetary policy during its normalization process mostly by changing its target range for the federal funds rate and not by actively managing its balance sheet. “The primary means of raising the federal funds rate will be to increase the rate of interest paid on excess reserves,” Yellen said. She also noted...
At Dec. 31, depositories held $964.2 billion of pass-through securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, a gain of 1.3 percent from the third quarter.
Only one lender accounted for more than 10 percent of the single-family mortgage volume completed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2014: Wells Fargo. The bank also dominates deliveries to Ginnie Mae and originations of jumbo mortgages. Wells had $180.89 billion in mortgage originations in 2014, accounting for 14.6 percent of total mortgage originations, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The bank’s share of mortgage originations declined from 18.9 percent in 2013 as refinance activity slowed and nonbanks made efforts to compete for production and servicing. Officials at Wells said...
The wholesale-broker channel was the only mortgage production arena to see increased volume in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Brokers originated an estimated $34 billion in new home loans during the final three months of 2014, a gain of 6.3 percent from the previous quarter. The wholesale-broker channel gradually recovered from a disastrous first quarter, when brokers saw their market share slide to just 9.0 percent. By the end of the year, it was up to 10.0 percent. The broker channel generated...[Includes four data charts]
Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro defended a key provision in the administration’s FY 2016 budget proposal that would allow the FHA to assess lenders an administrative fee to fund improvements in the loan origination and servicing processes. At a HUD budget hearing this week before the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation, HUD and Related Agencies, Castro said the proposed fee would be used for risk management and technological improvements and in establishing quality-assurance policies to help lenders originate more FHA loans without fear of regulatory action or litigation. Castro responded...
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