Hopes for a resurgence of issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities backed by new mortgages appear to be tied more to banks than to steps Congress might take to reduce the government-sponsored enterprises’ footprint, according to industry analysts. Since the financial crisis, banks have largely opted to hold non-agency originations in portfolio instead of issuing MBS. According to an analysis by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, capital requirements have given banks ...

The public mortgage-backed security shelf recently filed by Redwood Trust was drafted with significant input from the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a review of correspondence between the jumbo MBS issuer and the SEC. After Redwood’s new Form SF-3, which allows for $4.83 billion in MBS issuance, was published in mid-May, the SEC released four letters sent to Redwood during the drafting stage for the shelf. Redwood’s responses to the SEC’s inquiries were also ...

Comparing 2005 with 2015, the share of loan applications from borrowers with low credit scores has declined at a greater pace than originations of mortgages to borrowers with lower credit scores, according to CoreLogic. “The decline in originations could be a result of potential applicants being either too cautious or discouraged from applying, more so than tight underwriting as the culprit in lower mortgage activity,” said Archana Pradhan, an economist at ... [Includes seven briefs]

FHA originations rose significantly in the first quarter of 2016 from the same period last year even as VA loan production decreased slightly, according to an analysis of Ginnie Mae data. Lenders delivered $54.4 billion of FHA-insured loans to Ginnie Mae for securitization during the first three months, up 36.2 percent from the previous year. In contrast, the volume of VA loans securitized over the same period, $35.0 billion, fell 1.5 percent compared to the same period a year ago. A strong purchase-mortgage market drove FHA activity from January to March. The reduction in FHA’s annual insurance premium in January 2015 continued to have an impact on FHA’s purchase-loan market share. In 2015, FHA purchase originations accounted for $151.0 billion of the estimated $881.0 billion in total purchase originations (conventional and government single-family forward originations), according to ... [ 2 charts ]

A California-based mortgage lender and six senior executives have agreed to pay $12.7 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve allegations they schemed to defraud investors in the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities with a Ginnie Mae guarantee. The SEC complaint alleged that, from March 2011 to March 2015, Ginnie Mae issuer First Mortgage Corp. and its top executives pulled current performing loans out of Ginnie Mae MBS. The issuer falsely claimed that the loans were delinquent so that it could recycle them as newly issued MBS and sell them at a profit. FMC allegedly issued Ginnie Mae MBS prospectuses with false and misleading information by using a Ginnie Mae rule that allowed issuers to repurchase seriously delinquent loans. In addition, the SEC complaint alleged that FMC deliberately delayed depositing checks from borrowers who had been behind on ...

While uncertainty persists regarding TRID, KBRA said it only slightly increased its loss expectations on Redwood’s planned jumbo MBS.

Fannie Mae said the result is that potential buyers may be wrongly disqualifying themselves before they even apply for a mortgage…

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase recently launched programs to deliver low-downpayment mortgages to Fannie Mae that differ from the government-sponsored enterprises’ recent expansion into high loan-to-value financing. Both banks introduced new 97 percent LTV programs they believe are easier to use than the GSE initiatives and, for certain borrowers, a better choice than FHA financing. Wells Fargo’s “yourFirstMortgage” requires a minimum of 3 percent downpayment for fixed-rate mortgages. The company will consider FICO scores significantly lower than other similar high-LTV programs, to as low as 620, along with debt-to-income ratios up to 45 percent. Factoring in nontraditional uses of credit such as rent, utility bill payments and tuition is...

Chimera retained about 15.0 percent of all three of the non-agency MBS...

Fannie Mae’s Robert Schaefer said there is a “high probability” the mortgage giant will be part of an MI transaction later this year that addresses the “pain points” the GSE sees in the deeper MI concept.