Ginnie Mae this week warned that VA refinance loans, particularly Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans, may not be included in any new pool or loan package if they do not comply with the newly enacted law protecting VA borrowers from predatory lending. The agency announced new pooling guidance pursuant to the loan-seasoning provision in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which President Trump signed into law last week (See details of the new law below ). The changes affect issuances of Ginnie mortgage-backed securities on or after June 1, 2018, but do not affect MBS issued before that date, according to the guidance. However, lenders seeking a guarantee after June 1 may have to recalibrate their loan-origination platforms to exclude refis that do not meet the new law’s seasoning requirements, said the Structured Finance Industry Group. The ...

Provisions to protect VA borrowers from abusive lending are now in effect after President Trump signed into law a broad regulatory relief package last week. The VA measures are part of S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, which the U.S. Senate passed on March 14 and the House approved on May 22. The bipartisan measures became effective for VA loan applications taken on or after May 25, 2018. They were part of the bipartisan Protecting Veterans from Predatory Lending Act, which Sens. Thom Tillis, R-NC, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, introduced in January and later incorporated in S. 2155. The bill was designed to protect VA borrowers from loan churning or serial refinancing and specifically targeted the VA’s Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan program, where the churned VA loans ended up. According to the agency, such practices not ...

Officials at the government’s mortgage programs said that major investments in technology will make their programs more efficient and pay for themselves, during a panel session at the Mortgage Bankers Association secondary market conference last week in New York. Michelle Corridon, deputy director in the single-family housing guaranteed loan division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said her program’s focus now is on infrastructure and innovation. The USDA is instituting a technology fee on every closed loan starting in October, she said. The enhanced online system will include new screens for housing, which now shares a landing page with other rural programs. When it’s complete, the new system will handle the process from guaranty commitment through loan delivery. In another efficiency move, rural housing is “rolling up” processing chores to fewer offices so it doesn’t have ...

California continued to lead all states in FHA and VA mortgage securitization in the first three months of 2018. The Golden State accounted for 15.3 percent of the $50.6 billion of FHA loans delivered into Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities in the first quarter. FHA loans comprised 18.2 percent of loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, and 34.6 percent of agency-securitized loans with primary mortgage insurance. About 66.6 percent of FHA loans securitized during the period were for purchase mortgages while refinance loans accounted for 27.5 percent. The average loan-to-value ratio of FHA loans in Ginnie pools was 93.0 percent. The average credit score of 668.2 reflected FHA’s traditional base of lower-income and first-time homebuyers, with an average debt-to-income ratio of 42.4 percent. The other states among the top five in terms of FHA deliveries into Ginnie pools were ... [Chart]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued a record $4.53 billion of new credit-risk transfer debt notes during the first quarter of 2018, according to an Inside MBS & ABS analysis. [Includes one data chart.]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t act like two companies in their 10th year of government conservatorship, waiting for federal policymakers to figure out what to do with them.

The tailored Dodd-Frank reform bill signed into law by President Trump this month should be a boon to investors in Ginnie Mae securities because it will reduce loan churning, but there could be some bumps along the road until all the details are ironed out.

The Structured Finance Industry Group continues to work on getting MBS and ABS classified as “high quality liquid assets.” The industry group has renewed hope for the ongoing effort due to the recent passage of regulatory relief in Congress.

In what is largely an intellectual exercise, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said last week that the agency will propose a new risk-based capital rule for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac even though it won’t apply while they’re in conservatorship.

A subsidiary of Singapore-based Temasek Holdings is set to issue an ABS backed by cash flows from private-equity funds. The deal, which will include tranches in Singapore dollars and U.S. dollars, received preliminary A- ratings.