A federal district court in Minnesota rejected a mortgage securitization trustee’s plea to compel a lender to repurchase defective home loans after finding that the loans no longer existed following the foreclosure and sale of the mortgaged properties. Ruling in MASTR Asset-Backed Securities Trust 2006-HE3 v. WMC Mortgage Corp., U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim granted the lender’s motion for partial summary judgment after determining that the loans had been extinguished when the trustee foreclosed on the properties and charged off the remaining principal balances. The dispute boiled down...

New issuance of single-family MBS by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae jumped by 16.9 percent from the second quarter of 2012 to the third quarter, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. The three agencies issued a total of $436.0 billion of single-family MBS during the third quarter, raising year-to-date issuance to $1.194 trillion. That was up 45.6 percent from the first nine months of 2011. Over half (50.3 percent) of the agency production in 2012 has come...[Includes one data chart]

Unanticipated complications with the Dodd-Frank Act appear to have caused Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to miss a Sept. 30 deadline set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to initiate risk-sharing transactions with non-agency investors. However, FHFA officials said they continue to work with the government-sponsored enterprises on the issue. “Risk sharing is a complex process that requires time to assess market opportunities, structural considerations, make operational changes, and develop proper risk metrics and controls,” an FHFA spokesman said. “We are moving forward steadily and expect to continue making progress in the coming months.” FHFA officials would not comment...

Ocwen Financial is set to become the eighth largest mortgage servicer with its pending acquisition of Homeward Residential, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. While the combined servicing portfolio will largely consist of nonprime mortgages, Ocwen is also looking to benefit from Homeward’s relatively new wholesale origination platform, which has produced a significant amount of agency mortgages this year. Ocwen announced last week that it plans to acquire Homeward and its servicing portfolio of more than $77.0 billion for $588 million in cash and $162 million in Ocwen stock. On a combined basis, including subservicing, the two companies serviced $202.0 billion in mortgages as of the end of the second quarter of 2012. “We are...

Rules proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in August to revamp servicing practices prompted widely varied reactions from servicers, individual consumers and community banks. Servicers largely sought to keep current servicing rules unchanged while borrowers asked for greater protections and community banks requested an exemption from the proposal. The CFPB said the proposed rules are aimed at ending “surprises and runarounds” for borrowers. The proposed rules incorporated a number of provisions included in the national servicing settlement and consent orders between servicers and federal regulators. Some of those provisions were required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Servicers largely suggested that the CFPB should not implement servicing rules beyond those specifically required by the DFA. However, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition, whose members include the servicers complying with the settlement and consent orders, called...

The “zero-zero” requirement in the loan originator compensation proposed rule pending at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could inadvertently steer borrowers into more expensive mortgage loans, according to a top industry official. “There is absolutely no doubt that forcing a zero-zero option is going to result in higher-priced loans,” said David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week. “Premium [loans] don’t get the same kind of multiple as a current coupon. So as the yield curve shifts and we see rates move, we’re going to see action that is going to make these numbers move around a lot.” To give a more extreme example, “if we have an interest-rate rally, you can drop...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued separate guidance to their mortgage servicers last week designed to continue the conservator-mandated effort to complement the servicing policies of the two government-sponsored enterprises and to develop a consistent framework for assessing servicer performance. The updated servicing policies seek to harmonize compensatory fee structures, servicer violations and remedies, and servicer terminations and transfer of servicing between Fannie and Freddie. Fannie’s and Freddie’s announcements also include...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency says its proposed new securitization platform could be used now by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as by private issuers, but it’s also intended to serve a post government-sponsored enterprise marketplace. Last week, the FHFA issued a call for public comment on a white paper outlining its proposed common securitization platform and a model pooling and servicing agreement. Those plans are also included in the agency’s updated strategic plan issued this week. The 31-page strategic plan – which updates a draft issued by the FHFA in February – sets...

Mortgage bankers are concerned about possible limits on the volume of loans they can sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and particularly the lack of information about the development of the new rules by the government-sponsored enterprises and their regulator. Fannie and Freddie are concerned about the ability of some approved seller-servicers to honor repurchase requests and are weighing new volume limits based on a seller’s capital. The Mortgage Bankers Association wants the Federal Housing Finance Agency to bring the issue out into the daylight. “Given the important nature of this issue, the MBA believes that the FHFA should...

Portfolio lenders held to a cautious strategy for home-equity lending during the first half of 2012, with most companies not doing enough new business to offset runoff in their retained holdings, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. But several large lenders reported significant increases in HEL originations during the second quarter, and some institutions managed to originate enough new business to increase their retained portfolios. The credit union sector continued to show more enthusiasm for the business than commercial banks and savings institutions. As of the end of June, banks, thrifts and credit unions held...[Includes three data charts]