But that didn’t stop the conservative from the Lone Star state from offering up some critiques on the FHFA...

Still, the deal world grinds forward. “Ten days ago, sales were dead, but interest is picking up again,” said Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group…

The MBS is backed by 3,548 mortgages that have seasoned for more than 11 years, on average.

Servicers of loans in MBS and ABS responded to recent hurricanes by aiming to limit investors’ losses while also showing consideration to borrowers. Practices vary across asset types, particularly in the MBS market. A number of issuers and servicers at the ABS East conference produced by Information Management Network last week in Miami Beach said they suspend collection-related calls to delinquent borrowers in the days immediately following a hurricane. Servicers also stressed that it’s important to hear from borrowers to better understand whether loss mitigation might be necessary. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and federal government entities involved in the mortgage market issued...

“Expectations have had to be reset post-election,” said Ryan Schoen, a senior financial services analyst at Washington Analysis.

For several months now we’ve been hearing reports that the Trump administration has grave concerns about the FHA program...

Lenders in the non-agency market are loosening underwriting standards to some extent as refinance activity is expected to decline. Some 22 percent of the lenders surveyed by Fannie Mae said they loosened underwriting standards for non-agency mortgages during the third quarter. And 13 percent said they plan to loosen credit standards in the fourth quarter. Only 3 percent of the non-agency lenders surveyed by Fannie said...

Ginnie Mae’s inadequate response to the rapid increase of nonbank issuers may make it difficult for the agency to identify issuer problems in time to prevent default, warned the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general in a recent audit report. Specifically, the IG report said the agency failed to implement policies and procedures for managing issuers in a timely manner and tried to supervise them without a written default strategy. Furthermore, the report claimed Ginnie did not promptly assess and address the risks posed by nonbanks. Ginnie Mae questioned the findings, contending it “has done a more than credible job adapting to the new environment” despite the pressure on its resources. Ginnie’s issuer base had changed dramatically over the last couple of years as many banks either left or reduced their exposure in the FHA market for fear of being slapped with a ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has asked its inspector general for some leeway in making much needed changes to ensure servicers are employing loss mitigation. Responding to an audit, HUD asked the IG to modify some of the recommendations to enable the agency to make policy changes where needed and in a suitable format. HUD also requested that recommendations regarding indemnification and servicing be tweaked so that remedies will be required only when a deficiency is found. The IG audit was based on the result of an analysis, which showed that servicers may not be always evaluating delinquent FHA borrowers for loss mitigation as required and that HUD’s oversight in this area is weak. According to the findings, HUD did not have adequate controls to ensure that servicers of FHA-insured single-family loans properly engaged in ...

Wells Fargo recaptured its crown as the leading VA jumbo securitizer, pushing Penny Mac back to second place even as the market dropped further in the second quarter. The volume of VA jumbo loans securitized during the second quarter declined by 5.2 percent from the prior quarter and by 11.8 percent during the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year. VA jumbo mortgage originations were off by 4.3 percent from the first quarter, according to an analysis by Inside FHA/VA Lending affiliate Inside Mortgage Finance. Agency-jumbo production sagged in the second quarter but the results were not uniform. Fannie Mae production was up 6.5 percent from the prior quarter, while FHA jumbo securitization gained 7.2 percent during the period. At the same time, VA jumbo securitization was down 5.2 percent to $7.4 billion from $7.8 billion, while Freddie Mac saw a hefty 27.8 percent drop in ... [Charts]