Collateral backing prime non-agency MBS issued after the financial crisis has performed well in part because of limited risk layering, though an increase in cash-out refinance loans is a possible source of risk, said Moody’s Investors Service.

Freddie Mac plans to issue its first credit-risk transfer deal as a trust execution this month in preparation for the new Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit structure, according to Michael Reynolds, vice president of credit- risk transfers.

An affiliate of Western Asset Management Co. is set to issue one of the largest post-crisis non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The planned $1.25 billion issuance differs in a number of ways from deals with non-qualified mortgages from other issuers. Arroyo Mortgage Trust 2018-1 will be the first non-QM MBS from WAMC. The firm has been stockpiling non-QMs and other non-agency mortgages since the end of 2014. Loans in the pending MBS have seasoned for an average of ...

Chimera Investment issued a non-agency mortgage-backed security this week stocked with loans initially aggregated by Bank of America. The deal marked a return to the jumbo MBS market for the real estate investment trust, with officials noting strong demand from MBS investors. The $380.0 million CIM Trust 2018-J1 was largely backed by non-agency jumbo mortgages along with a 5.5 percent share of loans eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. BofA acquired ...

Spreads on mortgage-backed securities with non-qualified mortgages have tightened in recent years, according to S&P Global Ratings. “Since non-QM deals first appeared in 2014, their AAA spreads have tightened, suggesting that the market may be growing more comfortable with this asset class,” the rating service said. The spread measures the price of MBS tranches compared with a benchmark international swap rate. Tighter spreads indicate greater demand from investors ...

The retail channel is the main source of expanded-credit mortgages, followed by brokers, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets based on loans in non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued since 2016. Some 57.0 percent of loans in expanded-credit MBS issued in recent years were sourced through the retail channel. And 36.6 percent came through brokers. The shares are based on deals that disclose channel sourcing ... [Includes one data chart]

The share of cash-out mortgages in prime non-agency MBS has increased in recent years, prompting concerns from Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service noted that the cash-out refi share increased from around 1.0 percent in early 2012 to around 8.0 percent in the second half of 2017. The cash-out refi share has been even higher in some recent issuance. Such loans accounted for 14.9 percent of the $736.5 million deal JPMorgan Chase issued this week ...

Redwood Trust entered the single-family rental market this week by purchasing a stake in 5 Arches, a lender and asset manager. The move is part of a diversification strategy for Redwood, with officials at the real estate investment trust expecting growth among renters. Redwood acquired a 20.0 percent interest in 5 Arches with a one-year option to purchase the remaining 80 percent of the company. Redwood paid $10.0 million in cash for the minority stake and can buy the rest of the ...

With overall production levels falling, there was a modest increase in several risk vectors of FHA and VA loans pooled in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter of 2018.A new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis shows the average credit score for FHA loans in Ginnie MBS issued during the first quarter was 671.1, the lowest level since Ginnie began reporting loan-level data on its securities. That was down from 673.2 in the fourth quarter and 679.2 a year ago. Part of the slide in FHA credit scores likely reflects the increased share of purchase mortgages, which typically have lower scores than refinance loans. The same thing happened in the VA market, where average credit scores fell 1.1 points to 707.8 in the first quarter. A year ago, the average VA score was 710.2. Debt-to-income ratios also drifted higher, suggesting more risk of default. Among FHA loans, the average DTI rose to ... [Charts]

An approved issuer suspended last month due to alleged VA loan churning activities is back in Ginnie Mae’s multi-issuer mortgage-backed securities program. Nations Lending, ranked 97th in Inside FHA/VA Lending’s top 100 VA lenders, was reinstated after reaching a confidential agreement with Ginnie Mae, according to a source familiar with the case. The Ohio-based lender has been “fully reinstated and [again] able to use all of Ginnie Mae’s programs that are available for lenders in good faith,” said the source, who asked not to be identified. The source declined to provide details of the agreement, maintaining Nations has been very transparent and was “ahead of the curve” in terms of dealing with the churning problem. “Nations began addressing the issue even before Ginnie took action,” he said. Ginnie neither confirmed nor commented on the report. “The evidence will show what is happening in the ...