ReadyCap Commercial LLC, a startup based in Irvine, CA, issued its first loan approval a few days ago, and hopes to issue a commercial MBS by the fall. The company’s forte is what it calls “low balance” commercial mortgages, including multifamily, office, industrial and retail properties. Its loan size menu ranges from $500,000 to $5 million, company CEO Steve Skolnik told Inside MBS & ABS. Skolnik, who until last June headed commercial services at Aurora Bank FSB, is...

During the next 12 to 24 months, investors should expect “robust growth” from the historically fragmented single-family real estate-owned-to-rental market as it emerges into an institutional asset class, according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. The KBW report noted that despite the market’s traditionally limited funding source of capital – retail or smaller institutional investors – its horizons are expanding. “Investor interest has increased...

Inside Mortgage Finance Publications, Inc. announced this week that it has just settled a major copyright infringement dispute with a large national financial institution for more than one quarter of a million dollars. Without admitting any infringement, liability or wrongdoing, the financial institution agreed to pay IMFP to settle charges that it had violated federal copyright laws by making unauthorized copies of Inside Mortgage Finance. IMFP alleged that the financial institution had engaged in ongoing in-fringement, distributing infringing copies of dozens of registered issues to a group of non-subscribing employees. “We never like...

A temporary exemption for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages is among the plethora of provisions contained within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s long-awaited “qualified mortgage” rule issued last week. Even so, credit unions fear onerous GSE buyback requirements may be an unintended consequence of the new rule.Called for by the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB’s QM rule lists the characteristics of a qualified mortgage, or one that regulators will presume will be within a borrower’s ability to repay the loan.

Last week’s $10 billion settlement between Fannie Mae and Bank of America over outstanding and potential repurchase claims is at least a truce in the bitter battle between the GSE and the bank that has simmered since the housing bubble burst. But the jury is still out as to how much business the two companies will do again going forward. Under the agreement, BofA will pay Fannie $3.55 billion cash and spend $6.75 billion to buy back some 30,000 loans sold by Countrywide Financial to the GSE. The “comprehensive solution” between the firms covers current and future repurchase obligations related to loans with an outstanding balance of $297 billion as of Nov. 30, 2012, that were originated and sold directly to Fannie from 2000 through 2008. The bank will also pay Fannie $1.3 billion in “compensatory fee obligations” for taking too long to address foreclosures.

A few weeks ago, ES Appraisal Services, Jacksonville, FL, closed its doors, the second national appraisal management company to go bust in the past year. The other was Appraisal Loft. ES Appraisal’s demise was a hardly a surprise. For months, industry message boards were full of comments from independent appraisers who worked as contractors for the firm, complaining about unpaid invoices. In December, the company sent an email to appraisers confirming the news. At one point the firm employed, on a contractual basis ...

Newcastle Investment announced last week that it will spin off all of its excess mortgage servicing rights and certain other residential assets as part of a new real estate investment trust. The company also participated in another significant servicing transaction with Nationstar Mortgage. The publicly traded REIT spin-off is set to be completed during the first quarter of 2013 and will be known as New Residential Investment. “We believe the separation of Newcastle and New Residential will ...

With roughly $900 billion of mortgage servicing rights changing hands since October (or about to), and more on the way, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be busy in the months ahead approving the transfer of MSRs.Much of the MSR product being sold by Bank of America in its recent deal with Nationstar Mortgage and Walter Investment Management Corp. is tied to loans guaranteed by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie Mae.Servicing advisors who’ve worked with the GSEs note that their approval on a servicing sale is hardly a routine matter, especially if the product has high delinquencies, which is the case with some of the BofA receivables.

Home Loan Servicing Solutions – an affiliate of Ocwen Financial – made some significant moves recently with an acquisition of rights to receive servicing fees on $34.6 billion in unpaid principal balance handled by Ocwen. And the company is set to issue a $750.0 million securitization backed by servicer advances. Near the end of December, HLSS announced that it acquired rights to receive servicing fees on nonprime mortgages. Ocwen will continue to service the mortgages, receive a monthly base fee ...

It’s no secret that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are back in the black when it comes to earnings, but in the quarters ahead the two are likely to perform even better as delinquencies and foreclosures continue to wane, and they move to recapture some of their massive loss reserves. But another factor could bolster their earnings as well: large legal settlements with the nation’s megabanks, which will go straight to their bottom line, according to an analysis done by Inside The GSEs. As part of Fannie’s buyback settlement with Bank of America (see related story on page 1), Fannie will receive some $3.6 billion in cash from the bank, plus BofA is repurchasing almost $7 billion in legacy loans.