Mortgage lenders and servicers are increasingly worried about a number of aspects of the CFPB’s mortgage servicing rules that were issued earlier this year, including some that could interfere with various state laws. The fear is that will cause unnecessary litigation, conflicting judicial decisions and prolonged uncertainty for the industry. One of the bureau’s new regulations will require mortgage servicers to provide an opportunity to seek loss mitigation before foreclosure initiation is permitted, with a private right of...

The Mortgage Bankers Association recently warned the CFPB that a move by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to lower loan limits for the government-sponsored enterprises could negatively affect qualified mortgage status and borrower access to credit. “Given that we are in the early, fragile stages of a housing recovery, we urge the bureau to consider additional refinements to the QM requirements to mitigate the combined impact of the rule and the FHFA’s action on loan limits,” the MBA said. The trade group noted that the QM rule...

The firm’s deal will be financed with bonds that are expected to have a five-year maturity, a floating-rate coupon and a rating from a major rating service.

New issuance of agency single-family MBS fell in August to its lowest monthly total of the year, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae generated a total of $130.88 billion of new single-family MBS last month, down 9.3 percent from July. It was the lowest monthly production volume since December 2012. New issuance by the government-sponsored enterprises fluctuated sharply at that time as lenders jockeyed around rising guaranty fees and the implementation of more favorable reps and warranties policies. All three agencies saw...[Includes one data chart]

If the Federal Housing Finance Agency lowers loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac next year, Redwood Trust says it is ready, willing and able to pick up the slack. “If that happens, Redwood will step up and fund those loans, no problem,” said Mike McMahon, managing director of the real estate investment trust, the most active jumbo MBS issuer in the non-agency market. The executive told Inside MBS & ABS that he’s certain that Redwood would have plenty of company as well. “There will be little or no disruption in the market,” he said. According to McMahon, in 2012 lenders produced...

The GSEs continued to see solid increases in purchase-mortgage business, which increased by almost 7 percent from July to August. It was the fifth straight monthly gain for the two.

Last month, senior staff from the Senate Banking Committee met with various industry “stakeholders” – including trade associations, consumer groups and academics – to hear their thoughts on housing finance reform and the fate of the GSEs.

FeatherStone Investment Group has entered the fledgling real-estate-owned-to-rental securitization sector with a new program that allows broader investor participation in the transaction. Other securitized REO-to-rental deals only pay investors coupon and principal cash flows derived from rents on the properties, the company noted. FeatherStone’s program, on the other hand, would allow investors to participate in both the immediate rental cash flow as well as the potential capital gains from the sale of the properties in the deal. FeatherStone’s deal will be financed...

Stewart Information Services, which has made a name for itself in the title insurance space, has purchased most of the assets of Allonhill, LLC, a due-diligence firm that conducts reviews on non-agency loans feeding jumbo MBS. No purchase price was disclosed on the sale. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press, both companies were saying little about the sale outside of a short press release. Due-diligence sources familiar with the deal say...

If the agencies stick with their current plan to extend QRM status to any home loan that meets the “qualified mortgage” safe harbor, regardless of downpayment amount, private MIs would have to sell their product based on its economic value.