The average guaranty fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on new business continued to climb during the third quarter, with a sizable slice going straight into the U.S. Treasury. Fannie reported that the average guaranty fee on new business was 58.7 basis points during the third quarter of 2013, up from 56.9 bps during the second quarter. Freddie continued to charge lower fees than its rival, 53.2 bps during the third quarter, up from 50.7 bps in the previous period. A year ago, Fannie’s average fee on new business was...
Lenders are directing more resources toward purchase-mortgage originations and reporting that they are holding underwriting requirements firm. However, an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of mortgages delivered to the government-sponsored enterprises suggests that purchase-mortgage underwriting requirements have gradually loosened in the past year. The focus on purchase mortgages became urgent as interest rates started to increase in May, settling for the moment about 100 basis points higher than they were in April, reducing demand for refinances. In October, purchase mortgages accounted for over half of the loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. The vast majority of 68 lenders surveyed by the Federal Reserve said...[Includes one data chart]
A trio of industry groups is calling upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make sure there is adequate testing of the pending mortgage-origination disclosure forms expected to be released within the next few weeks. In a letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, the American Escrow Association, the American Financial Services Association and the Consumer Mortgage Coalition said they strongly support testing the forms before they are put into use. “There are a large number of mortgage loan products in the marketplace, and the rounds of forms the CFPB has released and tested do not accommodate all of them,” the groups said. The forms that have been released so far won’t work...
Old Republic International is planning to recapitalize its mortgage guaranty subsidiary, RMIC Companies, Inc., allowing the company to resume underwriting in early 2014, adding to the flow of new capital coming into the private mortgage insurance business. It is unclear how much money is needed to recapitalize RMIC, which is currently in a run-off mode, but Old Republic plans to contribute up to $50 million and raise additional funds in the capital markets to resurrect its MI subsidiaries. The company did not reply to requests for comment. Material increases in mortgage insurance claims and loss payments that began in 2007 gradually depleted...
Investors and analysts are starting to wonder if Nationstar Mortgage bit off more than it could chew with its multi-billion dollar servicing purchases of the past two years. Sources say the company recently hired PricewaterhouseCoopers as a consultant to look at its quickly growing $375 billion servicing portfolio. A spokesman for the company dismissed...
Mortgage delinquency rates reached a five-year low during the third quarter of 2013, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index. A group of 19 lenders that serviced $5.33 trillion of home loans reported that just 6.78 percent of those loans were in some stage of delinquency or default. That figure, which is not seasonally adjusted, was the lowest rate in the index since the third quarter of 2008. The overall delinquency rate improved...[Includes one data chart]
The last time private MIs did more business than either the FHA or the VA was back in the first quarter of 2008. At that point, however, private MIs accounted for well over half of primary MI new business.
The STACR deal was structured so that Freddie Mac will take the first 30 basis points of losses on the transaction, followed by private investors, which bought debt notes on the following 300 basis points of potential losses.
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