The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Popular Democracy have filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to compel the Federal Housing Finance Agency to provide details about its efforts to block municipalities from using eminent domain to prevent foreclosures. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit seeks information regarding the FHFA’s relationship with big banks and MBS investors and whether such interests influenced the agency’s opposition. The suit was filed on behalf of community housing advocates in California, New Jersey and New York. Certain municipalities with large African-American and Latino populations, including Richmond, CA, and Irvington, NJ, are considering...

New residential MBS production represented 78.4 percent of primary-market mortgage originations during the first nine months of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. A total of $1.243 trillion of residential MBS were issued during the first three quarters of this year, with only $12.2 billion coming from the non-agency MBS market. At the same time, an estimated $1.585 trillion of new home loans were made by lenders, yielding a 78.4 percent securitization rate. The securitization rate was...[Includes one data chart]

“There has been significant industry confusion concerning the extent to which affiliate fees are included in the points-and-fees calculation, particularly when only a portion of a fee is retained by an affiliate,” the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

According to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets, Fannie Mae’s portfolio of guaranteed subprime mortgages is declining much more rapidly than Freddie’s.

From what we understand, some GSE employees with MBS backgrounds are eagerly volunteering their services to the CSS project, believing that the “end product,” the MBS, is where the future lies.

The rating services are slowly rolling out their criteria for non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s qualified-mortgage requirements take effect. The consensus among the rating services appears to be that jumbo issuers will initially stick to QMs that receive safe-harbor protections. To meet QM requirements, lenders must document eight underwriting characteristics, including income, employment and debt-to-income ratio. QMs also cannot include ...

After years of servicing loans for distressed subprime borrowers but avoiding mortgage originations, Ocwen Financial is planning to offer nonprime mortgages. “Nonprime lending is sort of like crabgrass,” William Erbey, Ocwen’s executive chairman, said last week at an investor conference hosted by the firm. “I’ve been around long enough to see it get hit by Roundup and come back through the cracks.” Ocwen jumped into the agency origination market last year with its acquisition of Homeward Residential ...

Fraud among jumbo borrowers is increasing, particularly regarding employment and income, according to industry analysts who say lenders should pay particular attention to fraud on loan characteristics that factor into qualified mortgage requirements and new ability-to-repay standards. “In high-cost markets, people tend to be willing to fudge a little bit on their income,” said Ann Fulmer, a vice president of industry affairs at Interthinx, during a webinar hosted this week by the provider of fraud-mitigation services ...

The end-of-draw period for home-equity lines-of-credit originated 10 years ago isn’t the only concern for banks, according to federal regulators. Fair-lending violations are also a risk in cases where lenders reduced credit limits on HELOCs or suspended the loans due to declines in home prices. Many lenders suspended borrowers’ HELOCs in recent years or reduced credit limits due to significant declines in home prices, according to the Federal Reserve. “The manner in which HELOC accounts ... [Includes one data chart]

Servicers are complying with most of the requirements under the $25 billion national servicing settlement and the Home Affordable Modification Program. Regulators have warned that penalties will be severe if problems persist. The monitor of the national servicing settlement said in a report last week that CitiMortgage failed one of more than 24 metrics tested in the second quarter of 2013. Joseph Smith, the settlement monitor, said the failure regarding whether loans were delinquent ...