The Federal Housing Finance Agency says it will finalize new plans for examining how well Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac manage the risks of mortgage servicing transfers this month. The agency has been under scrutiny by its Inspector General for failing to push the two government-sponsored enterprises to manage risks posed by nonbank servicers. In a new report, the IG said the FHFA has not fully made sure that both GSEs are following the three advisory bulletins it has issued that address nonbank servicer risks, among other things. The report is heavily redacted, making it difficult to determine where FHFA examiners have failed, but it appears that there have been shortcomings for one of the GSEs. The three advisory bulletins address...

Borrowers completing reverse-occupancy fraud aim to qualify for a mortgage with help from the theoretical rental income from the so-called investment property…

According to his financial disclosure form, Mnuchin lists the value of his Advantage stake at $500,001 to $1 million.

Another record year for Ginnie Mae MBS issuance plus strong volume in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs helped push total securitization of residential mortgages and non-mortgage ABS to a three-year high of $1.698 trillion in 2016. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis shows that total MBS and ABS issuance – not including commercial MBS – was up 13.3 percent from 2015. Agency production of single-family MBS totaled $1.481 trillion in 2016, up 17.5 percent from the previous year. Over a third of that came from Ginnie, which set a new annual record with $507.5 billion in single-family MBS issuance. The non-agency MBS market was...[Includes three data tables]

With two of the nation’s largest originators of nonprime and non-qualified mortgages hoping for a record production year in 2017, the mostly anemic securitization market for these types of credits could receive a real boost. But the big question remains: how much will the two firms – Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions and Citadel Servicing Corp. – tap the MBS market? In 2016, the Irvine, CA-based Citadel funded...

In late December, Freddie Mac issued a $934.27 million security backed by seasoned mortgages. It was the first seasoned credit-risk transfer from the government-sponsored enterprise. While Freddie has issued fully guaranteed securitizations backed by seasoned mortgages, Freddie Mac Seasoned Credit Risk Transfer Trust, Series 2016-1 included tranches without a guarantee from the GSE, similar to a non-agency senior-sub MBS. The transaction included...

The incoming Trump administration has yet to pick a new president for Ginnie Mae, but foreign investors will be keeping a close eye on the selection for the simple reason they own a ton of the agency’s MBS. According to Sept. 30 figures provided to Inside MBS & ABS, foreign investment in Ginnie MBS is now at a record $552 billion, or roughly 35 percent of all outstanding securities. The agency could not provide...

The only word from the incoming Trump administration about the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is that the prospective Treasury secretary wants to bring them out of conservatorship. The Obama administration, however, commits only to preserving an explicit government guarantee for a “defined class” of MBS. “The explicit government guarantee would be funded by financial institutions and would act as insurance against catastrophic losses,” said the Treasury in a late December blog posting by Jane Dokko, deputy assistant secretary for financial economics, and Sam Valverde, a counselor in the Office of Domestic Finance. However, the authors don’t elaborate on what would shape the defined class. Under the new guarantee, investors would be assured...

With rates falling again, lenders may be rethinking any planned layoffs...

VA Extends Making Home Affordable Program. The Department of Veterans Affairs has extended the Making Home Affordable program to Oct. 1, 2017. The program was set to expire on Jan. 1, 2017. USDA Approves NewFed Mortgage to originate Section 52 Guaranteed Rural Housing Loans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved NewFed Mortgage Corp., a multi-state residential mortgage lender, to originate USDA loans. Based in Danvers, MA, retailer NewFed offers FHA, VA, USDA, conventional and jumbo mortgage products. Reviews Genworth Financial’s Proposed Sale to Chinese Conglomerate. Fannie Mae has approved Arch Capital’s acquisition of ...