Competition from banks for conforming mortgages prompted Redwood Trust to discontinue its aggregation of mortgages for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises, according to officials at the real estate investment trust. “The business assumption that has changed is that we no longer believe that our conduit can generate sufficient conforming loan sale margins, primarily due to the unrelenting competitive pricing pressure from some major banks,” Redwood said in a document ...

With only a few isolated exceptions, VA and FHA lending was up sharply across the country last year, outstripping the private mortgage insurance business in nearly every state of the U.S., according to a new analysis by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Overall, FHA single-family mortgages securitized by Ginnie Mae increased 60.5 percent from 2014 and VA production was up 39.4 percent. Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posted a more subdued 26.2 percent increase in privately-insured loan volume. California remained the biggest mortgage market for the FHA, VA and private MIs, as well as uninsured mortgages. The FHA clearly won the mortgage insurance battle, boosting its share of insured loans in the Golden State from 41.1 percent in 2014 to 49.2 percent last year thanks to a whopping 89.8 percent jump in business. California had one of the highest concentrations of ... [ 3 charts ]

Ginnie Mae securitization of rural home loans declined in 2015 as securitization volume in the segment fell in the fourth quarter, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of Ginnie Mae data. A total of $18.1 billion in USDA loans were securitized in 2015, with the top five issuers accounting for $10.2 billion delivered into Ginnie (based on numbers below) MBS pools. Some $4.5 billion of MBS backed by rural home loans with the U.S. Department of Agriculture guarantee were issued in the fourth quarter, down 12.5 percent from the previous quarter. USDA MBS issuance also dropped 9.0 percent in 2015 from 2014 volume levels, with all of the top five issuers losing ground year-over-year as well as in the fourth quarter. Chase Home Finance remained the top issuer of securitized rural home loans, accounting for $5.6 billion in Ginnie MBS issuances last year. Second-place Wells Fargo, ... [ 1 chart ]

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust recently entered into its third front-end risk-sharing trans-action with Fannie Mae. The real estate investment trust said it has seen strong returns from such deals, potentially paving the way for other lenders to directly share credit risk with the government-sponsored enterprises. The third credit-risk transfer agreement between PennyMac and Fannie involves $5.0 billion in unpaid principal balance of mortgages acquired by the nonbank from correspondents. In a slide presen-tation, the REIT said it expects to invest $175.0 million as part of the CRT deal. PennyMac also recently completed deliveries into its second CRT transaction with Fannie. The agreement involved mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of $4.25 billion and a $149 million in-vestment by the REIT.

Refinance activity was heavy in the first half of 2015, and jumbo borrowers typically have more to gain by pulling the refi trigger.

In dollars and cents, additional spending at Fannie totaled $726 million over the four-year period, while at Freddie the reading was a more benign $376 million.

Zais said a strategic review of the REIT will continue, including exploration of a possible sale or even a liquidation of the company’s assets.

D’Urso is the second top executive to leave Clayton over the past six months. Another key departure came this past fall when Tom Donatacci left...

Sources close to D’Urso said his termination by Radian was a “total surprise” to him as well.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency cautioned that the pilots are in their early stages...