Companies that specialize in whole-loan trading are looking at a somewhat brighter future thanks to increasing volumes in the expanded-credit market, but it remains to be seen whether trading desks will return to the halcyon days of the pre-crisis environment.

Buoyed by strong investor demand, new issues of non-agency MBS have “flourished” in recent years, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency.

The Structured Finance Industry Group continues to wrestle with the demons of the past, the myriad issues that contributed to the downfall of the MBS and ABS markets a decade ago. Individuals working on various workstreams offered progress reports, stressing that the project is focused on best practices rather than rigid standards, at the group’s Residential Mortgage Finance Symposium in New York this week.

loanDepot, one of the nation’s largest nonbank home lenders, has come to market with a $300 million warehouse-related securitization for its Mello digital lending division. Three of the deal’s five tranches have received ratings from Moody’s Investors Service. The other two were not rated.

One large fixed income investor is working with clients now to make sure they’re prepared to invest in the new single security when it rolls out next summer. Western Asset Management is advising investors to consider aggregating their mortgage concentration and exposure limits for the uniform MBS that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will issue in the to-be-announced market.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued a combined $2.06 billion in credit-risk transfer debt notes during the third quarter of 2018, their lowest production level since the end of last year, according to an Inside MBS & ABS analysis. [Includes one data chart.]

The Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court this week granted a motion by Lehman Brothers Holdings to add indemnification claims against its former brokers and loan correspondents based on the allegedly defective loans at issue in a $2.3 billion settlement with non-agency MBS trustees.

The nonprime sector has split off from jumbo, and there are now roughly 70 investors in the sector.

In less than two weeks, the Senate Banking Committee will hold an oversight hearing on controversial pilot programs launched by Fannie and Freddie...

Trends in underwriting expanded-credit mortgages differ from what’s happening in the broader market, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Lenders have generally started to loosen standards for debt-to-income ratios and loan-to-value ratios as originations decline and the product mix shifts from refinances to purchase mortgages. However, in the expanded-credit market, credit characteristics were largely stagnant in the past year ... [Includes one data chart]