AmeriHome Mortgage plans to offer non-agency correspondent mortgages with debt-to-income ratios as high as 55 percent beginning in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to officials at the nonbank. The lender was sold by Impac Mortgage Holdings earlier this year and is now headed by James Furash, the former head of the banking unit at Countrywide Financial. In July, AmeriHome plans to start offering a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage with ... [Includes five briefs]

In December, the Federal Housing Finance Agency was set to increase the guaranty fees charged by the government-sponsored enterprises. However, Melvin Watt, the new director of the FHFA, put a hold on the planned g-fee increase and is taking a much more deliberate look at the fees, including a potential decrease in g-fees. The FHFA this month released a request for input regarding the g-fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including questions about ...

Redwood Trust could boost its jumbo acquisitions by $5.0 billion a year, according to industry analysts, due to a new partnership with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. The real estate investment trust announced last week that it has an exclusive three-year deal to purchase “high balance” mortgages from FHLBank members participating in a new product under the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program. Under the new MPF Direct, members of an ...

Several top-tier commercial banks increased their holdings of first-lien mortgages during the first quarter of 2014, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The growing portfolios were largely due to jumbo mortgages along with some conforming loans. Banks and thrifts held $1.74 trillion in first-lien mortgages in portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2014, down 0.7 percent from the previous quarter ... [Includes one data chart]

Sources tell IMFnews that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking into the matter and is promoting the idea of capital minimums for nonbanks that do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A senior Treasury Department official pushed back against the idea of rehabilitating the two government-sponsored enterprises, noting in a speech late last week that the firms cannot be re-capitalized and reiterating the Obama administration’s commitment to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mary Miller, the Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance, said that even if the two GSEs were allowed to stay in business and build up capital, it could take “at least” 20 years to recapitalize Fannie and Freddie. “During these 20 years, the taxpayer would remain...

A group of institutional investors – including BlackRock and Pacific Investment Management Co. – filed suit this week against six banks for their alleged failure as mortgage-bond trustees for over $2 trillion worth of mortgage securities. The suits against the banks – U.S. Bancorp, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, The Bank of New York Mellon, HSBC Holdings, and Wells Fargo – were filed in New York State Supreme Court, New York County. The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages for losses exceeding $250 billion on nearly 2,220 non-agency MBS trusts issued between 2004 and 2008. The suits allege...

The loans in the deal were largely originated by First Republic Bank and Chase, banks that certainly have the capacity to hold jumbos in portfolio.

The supply of single-family MBS outstanding fell modestly during the first quarter of 2014, reversing three consecutive quarters of modest growth, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. As of the end of March there was $6.371 trillion of single-family MBS outstanding, down 0.3 percent from the end of 2013. The supply of single-family MBS had been drifting lower since peaking at $7.007 trillion at the end of 2009 as refinance activity – which adds little to outstanding supply – dominated the agency market and non-agency MBS issuance gained little traction. For the last nine months of 2013, the MBS market finally began...[Includes two data charts]

RBS, which is effectively owned by the British government, still faces liability in private label security (PLS) matters tied to Greenwich Capital, a U.S. subsidiary that at one time was the largest nonprime issuer in the nation.