Since 2008, big banks have largely held their non-agency jumbo originations in portfolio, seeing better execution than non-agency MBS issuance, but all that could be changing.
Warehouse lenders that finance nonbank mortgage firms continue to report strong commitment volumes and usage rates, but there is an underlying fear that the good times won’t last forever. Nevertheless, that’s not stopping their telephones from ringing. “We’re seeing more requests for increases in lines than decreases,” said a senior manager who spoke under the condition his name not be used. “Most of our lines are holding steady.” Bob Garrett, executive vice president of mortgage warehouse lending at First Tennessee Bank, said...[Includes one data chart]
Non-agency MBS execution is competitive with agency MBS execution for purchase mortgages with loan-to-value ratios below 70 percent and credit scores above 740.
Mark Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, told Inside Mortgage Finance that including “lender paid” compensation to brokers in the 3 percent cap is “double counting.
Loan originators seeking to exclude their compensation from the 3 percent points-and-fees calculation under the Dodd-Frank Act could consider becoming a correspondent lender or a net branch operator to skirt the restriction. But industry experts caution that such a plan has its own pitfalls. The possibility of brokers switching hats surfaced as the mortgage broker industry, once again, struggles against what it deems unfair restrictions on broker compensation. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to have addressed some of these issues with changes to its ability-to-repay rule designed to eliminate double counting in the calculation of loan originator compensation. [See the story on page 5.] The inclusion of loan originator (LO) compensation in the calculation of points and fees under the CFPB rule raises...
The long-awaited boom in nonperforming loan sales may finally be here, as megabanks such as Wells Fargo, Citigroup and HSBC have begun testing investor appetites by offering large packages in the open market. According to investors and advisors who play in the space, Wells recently auctioned off an $800 million NPL package and HSBC sold a $750 million portfolio. Recently, Popular Bank said that it entered...
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader doesn’t exactly have a seat at the mortgage reform table, but that isn’t stopping him from asking the Treasury Department to do something to protect what he calls “the already financially injured common shareholders” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a recent letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Nader blames a host of senior government officials – including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke – for misleading investors about the financial health of Fannie and Freddie just months before they were seized by the federal government in September 2008. Nader, a one-time shareholder in the government-sponsored enterprises, is pushing...
Legislation introduced last week by a Senate Republican would revoke the charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and create a new Mortgage Finance Agency for the securitization of single-family and multifamily mortgages. Meanwhile, a separate bipartisan Senate bill still in the works would also dispense with the existing two government-sponsored enterprises while building a new one. Filed on May 23 by Sen. Johnny Isakson, the Mortgage Finance Act of 2013 is patterned on legislation the Georgia Republican proposed in 2011. It would put the GSEs into “irrevocable receivership,” with the Federal Housing Finance Agency tasked as their receiver no later than 18 months after enactment of the bill. “Immediately upon placement of the enterprises into receivership, the FHFA shall commence...
The revised rule excludes from the calculation of points and fees paid by a consumer to a mortgage broker when that payment has already been counted toward the points-and-fees thresholds as part of the finance charge.
RSS