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...
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...
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 SEC will push for admissions of guilt as part of settlements of lawsuits it files against private industry, including participants in the MBS market.
It appears that Cerberus is going down the mortgage aisle one more time. Let's hope it doesn't end like GMAC. Meanwhile, jumbo MBS market seizes up, temporarily.
When interest rates rise rapidly – as they have the past two weeks – lenders suffer. But it appears the few dozen or so hard-money and subprime lenders operating quietly in the trenches are doing just fine and are even seeing an increase in loan requests. Mark Mozilo, a principal in CALCAP Advisors, told Inside Nonconforming Markets that his hard-money firm will fund 40 loans in the second quarter of 2013, its highest quarterly volume to date. The company is just a few years old. Mozilo added that ...
Lenders that originate home loans to hold in portfolio are concerned about the regulatory consequences of originating non-qualified mortgages. While some have asked for a blanket exemption from liability for non-QMs held in portfolio, Democrats in Congress appear unlikely to approve such changes. “Congress should amend the ability-to-repay statute to grant QM status to all mortgage loans held in portfolio by community banks,” Charles Vice, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of ...
Bank and thrift holdings of home-equity loans continue to decline, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. Performance on the loans has been mixed, and there are concerns about the expiring interest-only period on vintage home-equity lines of credit. Banks and thrifts held $1.07 trillion in HELs – HELOCs, unused HELOC commitments and closed-end second liens – at the end of the first quarter of 2013, down 1.8 percent from the previous quarter. TD Bank was ... [Includes one data chart]
The five servicers involved in the $25 billion national servicing settlement have largely complied with the 304 standards included in the settlement. However, Bank of America, CitiMortgage, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo each failed at least one metric tested in the settlement and could face monetary penalties. In a report released last week, Joseph Smith, the settlement’s monitor, said he found eight failed metrics: two by BofA, three by Citi, two by Chase and one by Wells Fargo. Only the ...
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