A $161.71 million MBS planned by Lone Star Funds backed by newly originated nonprime mortgages received an A rating this week from DBRS and Fitch Ratings. The deal is the first post-crisis nonprime MBS to receive a credit rating and it will be the largest post-crisis nonprime MBS issued to date. The rating services stressed that while the mortgages originated by Lone Star’s Caliber Home Loans are generally nonprime, the underwriting on the loans is relatively strong. However, Fitch said it capped the rating at A due to the limited nonprime performance of Caliber and Hudson Americas, the asset manager for the MBS. “As more post-crisis non-prime performance is established while upholding appropriate controls, Fitch will consider...

Fannie Mae plans to start issuing MBS backed by single-family, fixed-rate re-performing mortgages later this year. This week, the government-sponsored enterprise detailed some of the types of loans that will be included in the planned issuance. Both loans that cured on their own and mortgages that received a modification will be eligible for the new RPL securitization program. Among other factors, the mortgages must have been performing for at least six months. Loans modified via the Home Affordable Modification Program will be eligible for the MBS along with loans modified through the GSE’s proprietary mod programs. A number of different loan types will be excluded...

A partisan debate is brewing in the Senate over whether a more complex regulatory system could actually lead to increased systemic risk for U.S. banks even as House Republicans weigh proposals to eliminate financial and consumer protections under the Dodd-Frank Act. Discussions in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week revolved around the Basel and Dodd-Frank capital and liquidity requirements and whether they are forcing big and small banks to focus more on safety and soundness instead of meeting the needs of consumers and the economy. Post-crisis financial regulations have become...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac produced $73.23 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in May, a solid 6.3 percent increase from April, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside The GSEs. The key ingredient was a 13.0 percent jump in the volume of purchase mortgages delivered by lenders last month. The GSEs securitized $33.25 billion of purchase-money mortgages in May, the strongest monthly total since October 2015 ... [Includes two data charts]

In anticipation of plans to securitize loans that had been previously delinquent, this week Fannie Mae announced that it will release historical data on some 700,000 re-performing loans. The release, scheduled for July, will include updated credit scores and loan-to-value ratios at issuance. This coincides with Fannie’s efforts to become more transparent and give the market the ability to analyze how these re-performing loans, or RPLs, have performed over ...

Calls for a GSE recapitalization are growing louder as industry groups and lawmakers urge Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt to exercise his authority and suspend the Treasury Department’s sweep of Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac profits. Letters to the FHFA and Treasury last week came from a group of small lenders, affordable housing organizations and civil rights advocates, while a group of 32 Democrats on Capitol Hill also chimed in ...

A new poll by the U.S. Mortgage Insurers showed strong consumer support for housing reform efforts that rely on private capital to take on a majority of the risk currently placed on the GSEs. Close to half of the 2,000 respondents, 48 percent, said the private sector should bear the responsibility for the risk of losses on bad loans. Some 19 percent of the respondents said borrowers should bear the responsibility, while another 19 percent were not certain who the loss should ...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, is urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to solicit public comments on FHFA’s policy regarding super-liens imposed by homeowner associations on loans in foreclosure. The FHFA has said it is obligated to protect the rights of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and will aggressively do so. Super-lien laws are currently in 22 states and the District of Columbia. They allow homeowner associations that are owed fees to take priority over ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac credit-risk transfer transactions have evolved since they were introduced in late 2012, according to a recent report by DBRS. The rating service analyzed Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities and Freddie’s Structured Agency Credit Risk transactions and concluded that they have performed well with low delinquencies. DBRS attributed the strong performance to “prudent underwriting, the GSEs’ solid seller and servicer approval process and ...

Freddie Mac Sells $130 Million of NPLs. Last week, Freddie Mac announced it auctioned 487 deeply delinquent loans serviced by JPMorgan Chase Bank from its portfolio on May 31, 2016. The loans have been delinquent for approximately three and half years on average and the transaction is expected to settle in August 2016. Mortgages that were previously modified and subsequently became delinquent comprise ... [Includes two briefs]