New issuance of agency single-family MBS climbed for the eighth consecutive month in October, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a total of $93.01 billion of new single-family MBS during October, up 2.1 percent from September. October production was the highest monthly volume for the market since October 2013, and reflected steady growth since new issuance bottomed out in March of this year. But the gain was...[Includes two data charts]
As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to expand their credit-risk transactions, the two government-sponsored enterprises and their regulator should look to other ways to minimize credit risk, industry insiders told attendees of an Urban Institute/CoreLogic housing forum this week. In its most recent strategic plan for the GSEs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is calling on Fannie and Freddie to reduce their exposure to risk by tripling the amount of credit-risk transfers they conduct on their single-family business from $30 billion last year to $90 billion in 2014. Mark Hanson, Freddie’s senior vice president, securitization, told...
Rating agencies and Wall Street firms are paying close attention to the mounting regulatory problems at Ocwen Financial, fearful that more bad news could lead to servicing downgrades, which in turn could hamper its ability as a master servicer of MBS. One servicing advisor who has worked with Ocwen over the past two years noted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pay close attention to the master servicing ratings of their counterparties. “You have to maintain minimum ratings and if you don’t – there’s going to be trouble,” he said. Downgrades, he added, can lead...
Jaron Van Maanen of the FDIC said the lender should determine if the factor determining the LO’s comp consistently varies with terms over a significant number of transactions...
Bank of New York Mellon is looking to increase its master servicing activity on residential mortgages, according to officials at the firm that acquired the master servicing unit from JPMorgan Chase in October 2006. However, BNYM is up against stiff competition, including Wells Fargo, a dominant presence in master servicing for non-agency MBS. BNYM is focusing on growth opportunities from managing new funds in traditional residential mortgages as well as new loan types, according to a recent report by Fitch Ratings. In September, Fitch downgraded BNYM’s master servicer rating due to compliance issues, organizational changes and low activity in recent years. The firm has...
Servicers are increasingly executing their clean-up call options on vintage non-agency MBS, paying off investors at par and realizing profits by liquidating real estate owned properties. This year has been the most active year for clean-up calls on non-agency MBS since 2007, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. And that’s before the largest servicer of subprime MBS has taken any significant action on clean-up calls. In August, Ocwen Financial announced...
The mortgage industry cannot and should not wait for Congress to get around to a legislative solution to the government-sponsored enterprises when much of what is necessary can be accomplished administratively, according to experts at a forum hosted by the Urban Institute and CoreLogic. Andrew Davidson, president of Andrew Davidson & Co., noted that among the lessons of this year’s failure to launch a Senate GSE reform bill is that lawmakers find it easier to agree on a set of principles for a mortgage finance system than on the system’s design. With legislation a long shot before the 2016 presidential elections, Davidson said...
Two Harbors Investment is working to increase its non-agency conduit activity, launching a nonprime product along with a low-downpayment jumbo for high-quality borrowers. Officials at the real estate investment trust said Two Harbors also plans to be a regular issuer of non-agency mortgage-backed securities. “It has been clear to us for some time that the market has a need for products like this, and we are excited to be able to extend our reach as a capital provider to these segments ...
With growth via acquisitions of servicing portfolios on hold, Ocwen Financial is pursuing a number of different initiatives, including originations of non-agency mortgages. The nonbank primarily known for servicing high-touch mortgages is currently testing originations of jumbo mortgages and working toward originating nonprime mortgages. “The business is building a robust new product pipeline and is currently in the market testing a new jumbo mortgage product,” Michael Bourque ...
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