Forget (for now) the story about Bank of America scuttling the sale of $14 billion of high-touch mortgage servicing rights. Inside Mortgage Finance is hearing that over the past several weeks the megabank was looking to unload upwards of $300 billion in MSRs, or at least talking about it to select buyers. BofA, as we pointed out, doesn’t talk about its servicing sales, though it does acknowledge them (sometimes) in its earnings calls with analysts.…
Mortgage securitization rates remained at records levels through the third quarter of 2012, with 86.3 percent of primary market originations being financed as MBS according to a new analysis by Inside MBS & ABS.
A federal judge recently approved an $11.25 million settlement for investors who purchased $5.26 billion of non-agency MBS issued by jumbo lender Thornburg Mortgage. The lawsuit alleged false and misleading disclosures by Thornburg.
Investors with nearly $1 trillion of holdings of non-agency mortgage-backed securities are concerned about the Obama administration’s latest loan modification proposal, according to Tom Deutsch, executive director of the American Securitization Forum.
The CFPB’s new qualified mortgage rules will frustrate the market and adversely impact traditional supply and demand principles that could slow the sector’s recovery, according to scholars at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC. “Neither consumers nor creditors emerge as winners,” write research fellows Diane Katz and David John in an issue brief on the new QM rules, issued earlier this month. Irresponsible lending did in fact play...
Some top legal minds expect to see more investigations, and perhaps settlements, brought by the Residential MBS Working Group in the months ahead, and they’ll likely be flavored by interagency turf wars and the political ambitions of the elected officials that are helping to steer the group’s actions. “Just on the basis of prosecutorial rivalry, you can expect there will be further activity in this area,” said Jeremiah Buckley, partner in the BuckleySandler law firm, during a webinar discussion this week on the working group’s activities. Andrew Schilling, former chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a noticeable decline in Home Affordable Refinance Program activity during the final months of 2012, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. At a time when overall refinance business rose 11.0 percent at the two government-sponsored enterprises, deliveries of HARP loans fell 6.9 percent. The biggest decline was in issuance of MBS specifically geared for underwater mortgages. A total of $62.28 billion of high loan-to-value ratio mortgages were securitized...[Includes two data charts]
Outside investors poking around the mortgage banking industry for a possible franchise deal first and foremost want the companies they’re courting to have Ginnie Mae approvals. “If you have the Ginnie eagle, it’s golden,” said Chuck Klein, managing director for mergers and acquisitions for Mortgage Banking Solutions. “Retained Ginnie servicing is what it’s all about.” Klein, of course, isn’t...
Despite a surge in agency MBS issuance in 2012, new production of agency-backed real estate mortgage investment conduits fell 19.4 percent from 2011 levels, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $292.5 billion in REMICs last year, with Fannie accounting for 44.1 percent of the market. Fannie was the only agency of the three to increase its REMIC production compared to 2011 levels, managing a 6.0 percent increase. Agency REMIC volume fell...[Includes one data chart]
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