Earlier this year, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Senate Banking Committee he has the authority to restructure Fannie and Freddie without any change in law.
July is usually a good month for agency MBS issuance when the housing market is strong. In 2018, the fundamentals just weren’t there. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae guaranteed $101.39 billion of new single-family MBS last month, a disappointing 0.6 percent lower than in June. Purchase mortgages accounted for a substantial 74.4 percent of July issuance, although volume was up just 3.2 percent from June. The housing market ... [Includes two data charts]
Originators stranded with VA “orphan loans” that cannot be securitized in a Ginnie Mae MBS are finding temporary workarounds to deal with the problem, while maintaining hope for a potential solution from the government. However, few firms are holding their breath that Ginnie will come to the rescue, especially since the agency has maintained that only new legislation can solve the problem. The problem was caused by a quirk in a law aimed at preventing the churning of VA ...
Refinances of outstanding single-family rental securitizations are accounting for a growing share of new issuance. The trend has been prompted, in part, by home price appreciation, which has made it more difficult for some firms to source new properties. Some $4.41 billion of single-family rental securities were issued in the first half of 2018, according to Inside MBS & ABS. Blackstone Group’s Invitation Homes dominates the sector. The firm, which merged with Starwood Waypoint Homes ...
Closures of stores that issued credit cards haven’t prompted a significant uptick in charge-offs in recent years, according to Fitch Ratings. Analysts suggest that consumer-related trends remain the main driver of credit card ABS performance, and performance looks poised to decline. A number of retail card issuers have declared bankruptcy, closed large numbers of stores or liquidated in recent years. Fitch analyzed the relevance of the aggregate number of locations closed per ...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported $6.96 billion in net income during the second quarter, down 3.2 percent from the previous quarter, and the duo have actively been working to trim their retained portfolios. Freddie has reduced its portfolio to $236.4 billion in the second quarter, well below the 2018 yearend purchase agreement cap of $250.0 billion. Its portfolio declined 1.9 percent in the second quarter but was down 16.7 percent from June 2017. Some 41.8 percent of ...