The absence of a ready secondary market for mortgages that don’t fit into the safe harbor or rebuttable presumption categories of a qualified mortgage under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule is discouraging mortgage lenders of all sizes from originating non-QMs – at least in the initial phase of the rule’s implementation. “A common question we’ve received … is whether we plan to write non-QM loans,” William Emerson, CEO of Quicken Loans, said before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit during a hearing this week on the effect of the CFPB’s new rule. “I can tell you categorically that Quicken Loans, like the overwhelming majority of lenders, will not lend outside the boundaries of QM. “In fact, even if we wanted to, we wouldn’t be able...

Agency single-family MBS issuance continued to decline as 2013 came to a close, with production in December dropping to just $75.77 billion – the lowest monthly total since July 2011, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. Agency MBS production declined steadily last year after peaking in April. For the year, total issuance was down 7.1 percent from 2012, and issuance plummeted 34.1 percent from the third to the fourth quarter. The biggest factor in the decline was...[Includes two data charts]

Ginnie Mae gave seller/servicers a heads-up on the longer approval times in late November at an “education summit” in Washington attended by both new and existing issuers.

The statute of limitations for filing representation-and-warranty claims on non-agency MBS starts when a deal is issued, not when a defective loan isn’t cured, according to a recent ruling by the appellate court in New York. Industry analysts suggest that the ruling will limit rep-and-warrant claims on vintage non-agency MBS as well as future claims on recently issued jumbo MBS. In December, the appellate division of New York’s Supreme Court dismissed ACE Securities Corp. v. DB Structured Products. The lawsuit was brought by a trustee on behalf of investors against Deutsche Bank, the issuer of ACE 2006-SL2, a non-agency MBS issued in 2006. The investors, along with HSBC Bank, the trustee, were looking to enforce rep-and-warrant claims in 2012. New York imposes...

Refinance mortgages accounted for 80.1 percent of agency production back in 2012, but that declined to 65.6 percent last year and just 45.3 percent of fourth-quarter business.

Fannie Mae this week priced its second capital markets risk-sharing transaction, offering a total of $750 million in tranches for sale based off a reference pool of $29.31 billion in agency mortgages. The deal uses the same synthetic structure seen on previous risk-sharing transactions from the government-sponsored enterprises. Edward DeMarco, the former acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, had been pushing the GSEs to issue risk-sharing deals using a senior-subordinate structure that would not be eligible for the to-be announced market. With Mel Watt now the director of the FHFA, non-TBA risk-sharing transactions from the GSEs could be even less likely. Laurel Davis, vice president for credit risk transfer at Fannie, said...

Industry analysts predict that the New York ruling will limit rep-and-warrant claims on vintage non-agency MBS as well as future claims on recently issued jumbo MBS.

The nation’s three largest funders of home mortgages – Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America – this week reported hefty declines in originations during the fourth quarter of 2013. Wells originated $50 billion in residential mortgages during the fourth quarter, a stunning 60 percent decline from the same period a year earlier. The last time this perennial market leader had fundings this low was in the fourth quarter of 2008 when financial markets were reeling worldwide and the U.S. housing market was in the throes of an historic collapse. But Wells’ closest competitors fared...[Includes one data chart]

Ginnie Mae is telling sellers of mortgage servicing rights – and their advisors – that it wants upwards of 90 days to approve MSR transfers compared to just 30 currently. The agency gave seller/servicers a heads-up on the longer approval times in late November at an “education summit” in Washington attended by both new and existing issuers. A copy of Ginnie’s presentation was provided to Inside Mortgage Finance. Advisory sources said...[Includes one data chart]

According to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance, Flagstar is the nation’s second largest wholesale/broker lender. It also has a fairly large presence in the warehouse market.