Since Genworth is a counter-party to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the GSEs must approve the change of control as well.

CBO’s comments were contained in a report that takes a “what if” approach to allowing Fannie and Freddie to retain as much as $5 billion of capital a year for 10 years...

Jumbo lending has a much more retail focus: the vast majority of loans are originated for portfolio or, in the case of non-depositories, sale to a bank or other portfolio investor.

Freddie said the revised suite is “designed to take costs out of the loan origination process.”

For Mel Watt, he's at the halfway point...

The average daily trading volume of agency MBS hit $223.2 billion in September, the strongest reading of the year and a sign that liquidity in the market has improved. According to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, daily trading volume increased by 17.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago. But the year-to-date averages are much closer: $206.6 billion for 2016 compared to $199.9 billion last year. In the agency space there is...

In a class-action ruling that could have implications for legacy MBS lawsuits, a federal appeals court confirmed a recent U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision on standing and statutory damages. Ruling in Nicklaw v. CitiMortgage earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that to establish standing in order to bring a lawsuit alleging only a statutory violation, a plaintiff must allege a concrete harm or injury resulting from the violation. Relying on the alleged statutory violation alone would only result in a dismissal, the court warned. The 11th Circuit decision is...

The jumbo market is dominated by retail lenders to a greater extent than either conventional-conforming production or government-insured lending, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. A group of 19 top jumbo lenders reported $92.45 billion in jumbo originations through their retail operations during the first half of 2016. That represented 76.8 percent of the $120.37 billion in total jumbo production for the group. The 19 lenders accounted...[Includes one data table]

Industry participants looking to originate non-qualified mortgages or acquire the loans continue to insist that the relatively low volume of such loans is due to a lack of effort from lenders. “It’s not that the non-QM space is competing for borrowers that are getting loans elsewhere, it’s that the non-QM space is competing for origination capacity at existing originators,” said Matt Nichols, CEO of Deephaven Mortgage. Many have placed...

The underlying theme of portfolio lending is the ability to use compensating factors in underwriting a mortgage, said analysts at MIAC Analytics in a recent web posting. Portfolio lenders, many of them community bankers, have figured out to how to find profitable opportunities in the mortgage niches that don’t work in the agency market, MIAC said. Often, these are consumers who were left out of the housing recovery because of the sharp decline in capital available in the non-agency market, they added. Typically, they don’t...