Over the past few weeks, an unconfirmed rumor was making the rounds that Bank of America would once again begin securitizing newly originated mortgages through Fannie Mae. But a quick check with both parties indicates that the “cold war” between the two isn’t likely to thaw anytime soon. Terry Francisco, a spokesman for BofA said the bank is only selling Home Affordable Refinance Program loans to Fannie. The bank, he noted, discontinued securitizing newly originated non-HARP loans through the government-sponsored enterprise in 2012. According to figures compiled by Inside MBS & ABS, over the past three years almost all of the non-refinance activity between the two has centered...

The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee this week concluded its 53rd consecutive meeting without raising interest rates, issuing a statement that provided no hint whatsoever that such an increase would occur this year, notwithstanding previous commentary and the wishes of many on Wall Street. “To support continued progress toward maximum employment and price stability, the committee today reaffirmed its view that the current 0 to 0.25 percent target range for the federal funds rate remains appropriate,” said the Fed in its now-boilerplate language. In determining how long to maintain this target range, the FOMC said...

DBRS published proposed criteria this week to rate ABS backed by proceeds from Property Assessed Clean Energy programs. While the Federal Housing Finance Agency continues to place PACE-related prohibitions on mortgages delivered to the government-sponsored enterprises, the rating agency suggested that PACE programs are designed with a number of protections. Comments on the proposed criteria from DBRS are due Sept. 8. The firm would join Kroll Bond Rating Agency in offering ratings on PACE securitizations. KBRA has rated four PACE deals, the first of which was issued in March 2014 and all of which have received AA ratings. The PACE deals rated by KBRA were related...

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently loosened risk-retention requirements somewhat for collateralized loan obligations, giving in to requests from industry participants. Risk-retention requirements for non-residential securitized products, including CLOs, take effect Dec, 24, 2016. Federal regulators issued a final rule for risk-retention requirements in October 2014 and CLO industry participants have been working since then to try and get regulators to address issues created by the final rule. In mid-July, Crescent Capital Group wrote...

The average loan balance in the package is $214,935.

Ginnie Mae this week adopted a prior-approval policy for mortgage servicers that switch subservicers, bring subservicing in-house or move in-house servicing to subservicers. Noting an increasing number of companies that are making such changes in their servicing operations, the agency said some mandatory reporting requirements are getting lost in the shuffle. Effective immediately, any Ginnie issuer that wants to bring servicing in-house from a subservicer must get the agency’s prior written approval, according to All-Participants Memo 15-11. Existing rules require...

At least five lenders are currently delivering jumbo ARMs to Hatteras on a flow basis.

Among the top 10 contributors to jumbo MBS through two quarters this year, half were banks or associated with banks.

The lender could not provide any volume figures, but Logemann said one in 10 inquiries she receives “has some element” of a consumer who has gone through a foreclosure or short sale

The vast majority of the jumbos were originated by First Republic Bank and have seasoned for an average of 2.4 years.