One new portfolio that came out for bid recently entails the transfer of $328 million of Fannie Mae receivables in Massachusetts.

A big part of the MBS liquidity issue is caused by the Fed’s massive holdings, said Steve Abrahams, a managing director at Deutsche Bank.

Although only 13 banks reported net losses on mortgage banking during 1Q – compared to 756 institutions with net profits – several of the top players earned less than they did in the fourth quarter.

Another concern that has come up regarding employment is the graying of the mortgage executive suites.

The common securitization platform and single security are years away, but officials from the GSEs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Common Securitization Solutions, LLC, offered additional information about future plans and the inner workings of the platform at the Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary Conference in New York this week. Robert Fishman, FHFA’s senior associate director in the office of strategic initiatives, said the two initiatives are intimately related because the CSP will be the platform to issue the single security. The CSP was already been underway when the single security was announced a year ago. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “are critical to the current function of the housing market. So while it’s very helpful to think about the...

Seven months ago, a fledgling nonprime lender called Deephaven Mortgage unveiled a $300 million investment in the firm by a global “alternative” hedge fund called Varde Partners, Minneapolis. But since then, not much has been heard about Deephaven. Then again, it might be said that the “new” nonprime industry is still trying to figure out how to operate in a world of tight regulation, non-QM lending and a securitization market that doesn’t want to touch its product. Matt Nichols, the former Goldman Sachs managing director who formed Deephaven two years ago, did not respond...

Mortgage originations are already off to a better start in 2015, and industry economists are predicting, on average, a 15 percent increase from last year’s sluggish output. But uncertain prospects in the housing market point toward a decline in mortgage originations next year, according to forecasters at the secondary market conference sponsored this week by the Mortgage Bankers Association. 2015 should bring the strongest housing sales volume since 2007, said Leonard Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. Sales activity was decent over the winter, despite severe weather in many areas, but the market has yet to get back to normal. Freddie looks...[Includes one data table]

A dramatic disconnect has surfaced between different segments of the mortgage industry when it comes to being prepared to comply with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s pending integrated-disclosure rule. Professionals in the land title insurance side of the business are far more confident about their readiness than are depository institutions, recent surveys reveal. A survey conducted in April by the American Land Title Association found that 92 percent of respondents indicated their company will be prepared to implement the new loan estimate and closing disclosures and to comply with the CFPB’s regulation. That number isn’t as good as it seems, though. A much smaller 62.6 percent said they are on schedule for implementation. Another 29.4 percent conceded they are behind ...

Commercial banks and thrifts earned $3.99 billion from their mortgage-banking operations during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Mortgage-banking income was up 12.7 percent from the previous quarter and 19.0 percent ahead of the pace set in the first three months of 2014. Early 2015 was no record-setter, by any means, but profits were well below the levels reached in the middle of last year. The call-report data do not separate...[Includes one data table]

The real estate industry is excited about the potential use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones in marketing residential and commercial properties. But stakeholders might have to wait a bit more until federal regulations for drone usage are clear and precise. Industry participants across the country are eager to use drones for aerial photography, videography, property inspection and appraisal and for other mortgage-related opportunities UAV technology might bring. Sometime in the not-so-distant future, Realtors will be able to legally fly unmanned drones over listed properties to give prospective buyers a total view of each listed property and its surroundings. For appraisers and catastrophic insurers, drones can reduce the time it takes to provide an appraisal for a residential or ...