Investors are beginning to show renewed interest in buying servicing rights collateralized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, in particular “flow” transactions where the product is delivered in the future on a monthly basis. Moreover, there is even talk in the market that some of the megabanks may return as active buyers now that they’ve figured out their capital exposure under the Basel III capital rules. Basel caps mortgage servicing rights at 10 percent of Tier I capital, but some large “flow” buyers of yesteryear – including Wells Fargo – are under the limit and could have room to grow. Phase in of the Basel rule began last year. “We see a day when banks are active buyers again,” said Mark ...

Despite heavy volume in new single-family business in recent years, there has been little growth in the outstanding volume of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac servicing. GSE single-family servicing peaked at $4.794 trillion back in 2009. Up until 2014, refinance activity accounted for over 70 percent of Fannie/Freddie new business; there was a lot of churning in GSE servicing rights but a net decline in outstanding volume. The rebound in purchase-mortgage lending last year began to turn that around. A new Inside The GSEs analysis of Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities disclosures shows total single-family servicing grew modestly in both the third and fourth quarters of 2014. The analysis shows a total of $3.956 trillion of single-family servicing at the ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have filed notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission warning that they might not be able to pay “deferred” compensation to executives if the GSEs fail to meet their 2015 conservatorship scorecard goals. Fannie, for instance, notes that the Federal Housing Finance Agency “will have the primary role” in determining whether the mortgage giant achieved its goals.None of the potentially affected executives are named in the separate SEC filings of the two. One former GSE regulator had this to say on the matter: “The purpose of the conservatorship scorecard is to drive performance. They are tied directly to GSE executive compensation.” According to the recently released 2015 scorecard, performance is based on a variety ...

Fannie Mae’s risk-sharing business had a gang-buster year in 2014, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency set a higher goal for the GSE in 2015. “Certainly we were very pleased with where we were able to take the program last year,” said Laurel Davis, Fannie vice president for credit risk transfer, in an interview with Inside The GSEs. “If you think about 2013, our goal then was to just launch something and to test the market and see what would happen.” The plan for 2014 was “to establish a regular pattern of issuance with the market,” Davis said. “Even though we had a good amount of issuance last year, obviously the program itself is still in its infancy. So our ...

Three pools of seriously delinquent mortgages with a total unpaid principal balance of $410 million will be auctioned off by Freddie Mac. The delinquent pools, with unpaid principal balances of $160 million, $141 million and $109 million, will be offered through Mission Capital Advisors, the broker in the deal, according to a Bloomberg report. Competitive bidding will end on Feb. 4. A large chunk of the loans are two years past due, the report noted. Freddie spokesman Tom Fitzgerald declined to provide further details, saying information at this stage of the deal is provided solely to prospective bidders. He said details on the results will be provided after auction. The transaction is the second of such sales for Freddie in ...

The majority of mortgage lenders are forging ahead in 2015 to grow their origination and servicing businesses notwithstanding concerns about compliance and weak consumer demand, according to Fannie Mae’s fourth quarter 2014 survey of senior mortgage executives. The survey found that 88 percent of executives aim to grow their loan origination business by increasing the number of retail branches and loan officers and expanding their ...

The top five lenders in the industry accounted for 33.8 percent of total production last year, down from a combined 40.8 percent market share back in 2013.

Two other servicing packages hit the market the past few days, including a seasoned $276 million Ginnie Mae portfolio from Interactive Mortgage Advisors.

2014 wasn’t a great year for mortgage origination volume, but the market rallied from a dismal start to finish on a more positive note, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and ranking of top loan producers. Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $1.24 trillion in new home loans during 2014. That figure, which includes home-equity lending, was the industry’s lowest annual output since year 2000, when total originations barely topped the $1 trillion mark. Mortgage production fell a hefty 34.4 percent from 2013 levels, including a modest 1.4 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2014. The soft fourth-quarter volume was...[Includes two data charts]

Mortgage industry participants are anticipating brisk refinancing activity during the first half of 2015 as a result of a 50 basis point cut in FHA’s annual mortgage insurance premium and expectations that mortgage rates will remain low. Lenders believe that with mortgage rates lingering around 3.75 percent, coupled with the annual MIP rate cut, an estimated one million mortgage loans could be ripe for FHA refinancing. “There’s real business out there,” said Brian Chappelle, a mortgage industry consultant. “Some economists also anticipate another 100,000 in purchase originations this year as a result.” The premium cut makes...