A new working paper from University of California at Irvine economics professor Eric Swanson suggests the U.S. central bank’s bond buying activities will continue, to one extent or another, perhaps indefinitely. The reason? What the Federal Reserve did in the wake of the financial crisis produced longer-lasting results than what it said. Swanson, a former researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said both the Fed’s Open Market Committee guidance on the likely future path of the federal funds rate and its large-scale asset purchases (LSAPs) have had positive effects. The goal of both policies was...

Mortgage bankers – as well as MBS investors – are starting to get a little nervous that Ginnie Mae still doesn’t have a new president, though an announcement on the post could come in the next few weeks. Industry officials who claim to have knowledge of the selection process maintain that mortgage banker David Kittle, president of the Mortgage Collaborative, is the leading candidate to fill the post. Michael Bright, a director at the Milken Institute, is a close second. One source close to the situation claimed...

A Manhattan appeals court raised the burden of proof for Ambac Assurance, which seeks to recover monetary damages from Bank of America in an insurance case involving $1.68 billion in securities backed by high-risk mortgages from now-defunct Countrywide Home Loans. Attorneys with Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas said a panel of the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, ruled that Ambac may not use New York insurance law as the sole basis for arguing that it does not have to prove certain elements of fraud in its claims against BofA. The court also barred Ambac from using the statute to recover damages. The court held...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both announced new re-performing loan sale transactions this month as the two government-sponsored enterprises look for ways to shed illiquid assets. Fannie began marketing its first re-performing loan sale back in November to help reduce its balance sheet. The program continues to gain more traction with each sale. That first sale totaled $789.2 million in unpaid principal balance. Fannie has since announced...

Insurance policies are the second-largest form of the government-sponsored enterprises’ credit-risk transfer but Fannie Mae’s Credit Insurance Risk Transfer (CIRT) program and Freddie Mac’s Agency Credit Insurance Structure (ACIS) have a few stark differences. One of the primary differences in the two is that Freddie has retained large portions of the tranches from its popular Structured Avenue Credit Risk deals (STACR), and used the ACIS program as a way to transfer some of the remaining risk, up to the 5 percent retention limit, note analysts at Wells Fargo Securities in a recent report. With ACIS coverage tied to companion STACR deals, it’s...

Wells Fargo is planning to issue non-agency mortgage-backed securities backed by new originations this year, according to an official at the bank. The company was one of the top issuers of non-agency MBS before the financial crisis, but like most big banks, Wells has opted to retain its jumbo production in portfolio. “This year, one of our aspirations is to come back to the market with a couple of deals,” said Franklin Codel, senior executive vice president of consumer lending ...

JPMorgan Chase is preparing to issue a $1.02 billion non-agency mortgage-backed security with jumbo mortgages along with loans eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. JPMorgan Mortgage Trust 2017-2 received preliminary AAA ratings last week from Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service. The deal will be the second-largest non-agency MBS backed by post-crisis originations, topped only by the $1.03 billion security Chase issued in ...

Five Oaks Investment shut down its jumbo conduit operations but is still involved in the sector by providing a backstop to representations and warranties on jumbos originated by other lenders. The real estate investment trust is backstopping reps and warrants for mortgages sold on a loan exchange operated by MAXEX. “In July 2016, the company announced that it would no longer aggregate and securitize residential mortgage loans; however, given Five Oaks Acquisition ...

Credit Suisse is preparing to issue a $91.18 million non-agency mortgage-backed security backed by seasoned FHA mortgages, according to a presale report by Moody’s Investors Service. CSMC Trust, Series 2017-FHA1 received a preliminary A1 rating. Credit Suisse was a major issuer of post-crisis jumbo MBS but hasn’t issued a jumbo MBS since the fourth quarter of 2015. Fitch Ratings completed a review this week of 63 non-agency MBS backed by post-crisis originations ...

Moody’s Rates Credit Suisse FHA Securitization Transaction. Moody’s assigned investment-grade ratings to Credit Suisse’s first securitization deal in 2017 backed by seasoned re-performing and performing, fully amortizing, fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages insured by FHA. The deal is the first FHA-insured re-performing transaction since 2010, according to the rating agency. The collateral pool is comprised of 672 first-lien, fixed-rate loans and ARMs with a weighted average updated FICO score of 614 and loan-to-value ratio of 94.2 percent. Approximately 82.4 percent of the loans in the collateral pool were previously modified. Approximately 52.8 percent of the loans have been current for at least 24 months. Another 17.3 percent of the loans have been current for more than 12 months. Comments Sought on Various Information Collection Proposals. The Department of Housing and ...