The veteran Congressman who would be the first permanent, Senate-confirmed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency was vague and at times on the defensive during his confirmation hearing this week as Republican senators repeatedly questioned what in his resume makes him qualified to preside as regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Rep. Mel Watt, President Obama’s nominee to succeed FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, told members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that the Finance Agency under his leadership would “rigorously follow” the agency’s statutory role in an “open and transparent manner working with all stakeholders.” “You can also be assured...
The City Council of North Las Vegas, NV, is the latest local jurisdiction to be drawn by the eminent domain siren song of Mortgage Resolution Partners, despite the near-certain prospects of eventually crashing upon the rocks of opposition from federal agencies. Last week, the city council voted four-to-one in favor to approve a two-month advisory services agreement with MRP to advise the city on the seizure of mortgage loans through the use of eminent domain. Under the parameters of the agreement, MRP is to inventory potential loans in North Las Vegas that could be affected by its program, at no cost to the city, and to design a program for those loans that are inventoried. That program is to be brought back before the city council within 60 days at its Aug. 21, 2013, meeting. Also, the agreement prohibits...
During an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar on Thursday, participants from expressed frustration on the ability to get new jumbo MBS deals because of the recent rapid rise in rates.
Investors in vintage non-agency MBS could take $7.8 billion in losses due to previously undisclosed principal forbearance on top of the $1.0 billion in losses uncovered this month. However, a survey suggests that servicers don’t intend to pass the losses through to investors. The losses recognized in May were reported after Ocwen Financial took over servicing from Homeward Residential. Analysts warned that other servicing transfers could prompt similar losses. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said...
Secondary market reform legislation formally introduced in the Senate this week provides more detail on key elements of an ambitious proposal to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a new government MBS program, but it’s still widely seen as a starting point in a long process. The Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013, introduced by Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, includes a new section that would protect investors in MBS that carry guaranties from the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. from civil liability under federal and state law. Under the bill, S. 1217, the FMIC would sell...
The recent rapid rise in interest rates has some market participants talking about margin calls on MBS investors, but so far all the chatter appears to be speculative – although there still could be red ink out there, somewhere. At press time, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury had stabilized at 2.54 percent. In mid-May the rate was 1.70 percent. That’s a run-up of 84 basis points. One secondary market official told...
Over the past two weeks, mortgage lenders have seen their application volumes and origination pipelines get whipsawed by rising interest rates. But it’s not the run-up in rates, per se, that set off alarm bells in the industry. It’s how fast rates climbed. As Inside Mortgage Finance went to press this week, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was at roughly 2.60 percent. On a historical basis, that’s an attractive rate – and as many lenders have pointed out: consumers can still obtain a 30-year fixed-rate conventional loan at 4 percent, depending on the points paid. But a month ago, the 10-year Treasury was...
The revised ranking for the first quarter shows that the top retail lender, Wells Fargo, produced $60.4 billion through this channel, or 12 percent of total originations for the period.
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