AmeriHome Mortgage plans to offer non-agency correspondent mortgages with debt-to-income ratios as high as 55 percent beginning in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to officials at the nonbank. The lender was sold by Impac Mortgage Holdings earlier this year and is now headed by James Furash, the former head of the banking unit at Countrywide Financial. In July, AmeriHome plans to start offering a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage with ... [Includes five briefs]

Two firms plan to issue jumbo mortgage-backed securities next week, breaking a seven-week lull in issuance. However, jumbo MBS activity is expected to remain suppressed due to a number of factors, including dominance by the government-sponsored enterprises. “The idea that reform of the GSEs could pave the way for the private market’s return seems to have faded,” according to analysts at Standard & Poor’s. The rating service pointed to moves by ...

CitiMortgage is preparing to issue its first jumbo mortgage-backed security of the year, a $217.99 million deal largely backed by mortgages originated by brokers. The top contributors to Citigroup Mortgage Loan Trust 2014-J1 are Stearns Lending (33.5 percent), Nationstar Mortgage (30.3 percent) and Freedom Mortgage (11.3 percent). The deal is set to receive AAA ratings from DBRS and Fitch Ratings with credit enhancement of 9.525 percent on the super-senior tranche ...

WinWater Home Mortgage, a relatively new jumbo conduit, is preparing to issue a $249.47 million jumbo mortgage-backed security. The deal is set to receive AAA ratings from DBRS, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Standard & Poor’s despite concerns about the lack of performance data for WinWater and the firm’s “limited financial capacity.” WinWater is partly owned by principals of Premium Point Investments, a residential mortgage investment advisor ...

Sources tell IMFnews that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking into the matter and is promoting the idea of capital minimums for nonbanks that do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A senior Treasury Department official pushed back against the idea of rehabilitating the two government-sponsored enterprises, noting in a speech late last week that the firms cannot be re-capitalized and reiterating the Obama administration’s commitment to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mary Miller, the Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance, said that even if the two GSEs were allowed to stay in business and build up capital, it could take “at least” 20 years to recapitalize Fannie and Freddie. “During these 20 years, the taxpayer would remain...

Major post-crisis changes in the mortgage market should boost new issuance of residential MBS and have a long-lasting, positive impact on credit, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service cites three key developments that will continue to support a strong credit environment for new MBS issuance, starting with the final rule on ability to repay and qualified mortgages. Moody’s believes the rule will help MBS performance by improving the reliability and accuracy of data lenders use to underwrite loans. Under the ATR rules, lenders are required...

Six months ago, AmeriHome Mortgage of California was a little known subsidiary of Impac Mortgage Holdings. But not anymore. Now controlled by Athene Holding Ltd., an insurance company owned by Wall Street veteran Leon Black, the nonbank lender is gearing up to make a splash in the jumbo and non-agency market as a correspondent buyer of mortgages. “They’re...

Redwood Trust late last week struck a deal with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago to purchase fixed-rate jumbo mortgages from FHLBank members participating in the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program. Redwood will be the sole investor in “high balance” mortgages from the new MPF Direct program for three years. The program is subject to final approval from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Officials at Redwood said the real estate investment trust plans to start investing in MPF Direct loans during the second half of this year. The loan limit for the MPF Direct program is...

Morningstar Credit Ratings late last week published new rating criteria for non-agency MBS. While the firm has been active in the commercial MBS sector, the non-agency MBS rating criteria Morningstar released in 2012 never caught on with issuers. “We have taken a fresh, holistic approach to the residential MBS rating process to help investors gauge the relative default risk of a security against its peers,” said Vickie Tillman, president of Morningstar. Tillman joined the rating service in August after more than 30 years at Standard & Poor’s. Morningstar said...