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]

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 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.

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]

Bayview Asset Management of Coral Gables, FL, is entering the mortgage origination business at a precarious time: Funding volumes this year could fall to just $1 trillion, one of the worst showings since the turn of the century. But that hasn’t deterred the privately-held company, whose investors include the well regarded BlackRock Financial. Since launching a correspondent purchase program a few months ago, Bayview has reviewed roughly $500 million in collateral, purchasing ...

Diversity and inclusion are no longer just a compliance issue, a window dressing or a matter of being “politically correct” but a corporate tool for achieving profits, attracting and developing new talent, and an appropriate response to an increasingly diverse marketplace, according to experts at an industry summit held in Washington, DC, this week. The three-day summit was organized by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s diversity and inclusion committee to ...

The Treasury Department announced this week that the Home Affordable Modification Program and related initiatives will be extended again, this time until at least the end of 2016. HAMP activity has declined fairly steadily since 2010 but received a boost recently due to changes by the FHA. “We need to be there for homeowners facing foreclosure, those who are struggling with increasing interest rates on their modified mortgages and those whose homes are ...

A spike in mortgage interest rates similar to what occurred in 2013 is possible, according to economists at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The May-June 2013 spike caught many lenders off guard and put a crimp in mortgage banking profitability. The direction mortgage interest rates are likely to head is heavily tied to the anticipations of market participants, according to Saty Patrabansh, a senior economist at the FHFA, along with William Doerner and Samuel Asin ...

Secondary market mortgage sales – the lifeblood of mortgage banking income – declined sharply during the first quarter of 2014, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of bank call reports. Commercial banks and savings institutions sold just $125.7 billion in single-family home loans through their mortgage banking operations during the first three months of this year. That was down 31.1 percent from the fourth quarter and marked the slowest ... [Includes one data chart]