Although agency mortgage lenders are having a challenging start this year, nonprime lenders are seeing volumes increase more than anticipated and are shaping up plans to bring new MBS to market. Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, Atlanta, and its retail affiliate Angel Oak Home Loans ended the first quarter with just over $220.9 million of mostly non-agency mortgage production. An official at the company described the first quarter as “shaping up well.” The official told...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made it clear after being nominated that resolving the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a top priority for his department. And although Mnuchin will clearly be a player in the debate, the policy “ax” on the issue will be Craig Phillips, recently tapped to serve as counselor with an agenda that includes fixing the two government-sponsored enterprises. Most mortgage professionals have applauded President Trump’s pick of Mnuchin and now Phillips. Mnuchin was the former head of Goldman Sachs’ MBS department, and Phillips was a former managing director of Morgan Stanley’s fixed-income division. Phillips was...

The mortgage market has paid close attention to a lawsuit brought by PHH Mortgage that challenges the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Trump administration’s recent move to side with the mortgage lender. Now, the Treasury Department is making a similar argument that the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is also unconstitutional. Both the CFPB and FHFA, the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are independent agencies led by a single director whom the president can only fire for cause. In an advisory filed March 24, the Treasury backed...

There was little change in the amount of agency MBS held by the Federal Reserve in 2016 compared to the previous year, although the account generated a whopping $46.3 billion in net interest income last year. The 2016 net interest gains from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS were down slightly from 2015, when the Fed reported $49.0 billion, according to an independent annual audit of the Fed. Conducted by KPMG, the audit estimated...

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a total of $215.0 billion in collateralized mortgage obligations and real estate mortgage investment conduits last year, according to a new analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. Agency CMO/REMIC production was up 14.1 percent from 2015, slightly lower than the 17.5 percent increase in agency MBS pass-through issuance. Freddie was...[Includes one data table]

Fitch Ratings updated its rating criteria last week for MBS backed by seasoned mortgages, including re-performing loans and nonperforming loans. The revisions to the criteria removed two standards that Fitch previously applied when analyzing seasoned mortgages. For re-performing mortgages originated before 2009, Fitch will no longer consider the original loan documentation. All mortgages will be treated as though they were originated with full documentation, even if the mortgages were originated with less than full documentation. “In recent years, the distinction in borrower behavior for loans with different original documentation levels has disappeared...

Issuance of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities increased by 65.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the previous quarter, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Some $2.60 billion in prime non-agency MBS were issued in the first quarter. Volume was boosted by relatively strong demand from investors, the emergence of a new participant and the return of a firm that has largely ... [Includes one data chart]

Lenders originating so-called conforming-jumbo mortgages that are eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises continue to see better execution by delivering those loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac instead of packaging them in non-agency mortgage-backed securities. However, conforming jumbos accounted for 36.3 percent of the $1.03 billion non-agency MBS JPMorgan Chase issued in February. And other banks could follow in placing such ...

Annaly Capital Management is buying more non-agency whole loans, including non-qualified mortgages. The large real estate investment trust is using infrastructure it acquired from Hatteras Financial last year to complete the whole-loan expansion. Annaly’s residential credit group invests in non-agency mortgage assets, including whole loans and mortgage-backed securities. The group had $2.50 billion in assets as of the end of 2016, with whole loans accounting for ...

An affiliate of Shelter Growth Capital Partners issued a $119.87 million mortgage-backed security backed by newly originated nonprime mortgages this week. It’s the second nonprime MBS from SG Capital Partners, following a $113.71 million deal in October. The new issuance is fairly similar to the previous MBS from the firm, including relatively large loan balances and many adjustable-rate mortgages. SG Residential Mortgage Trust 2017-1 included mortgages with an ...