The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision that had cleared Freddie Mac of charges that it misled investors about its involvement in the subprime mortgage market. The lawsuit was filed in 2008 by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, which claimed Freddie made false public financial statements that hid its exposure to risky loans. The fund alleged that it lost more than $27.2 million as the value of Freddie stock plummeted. OPERS said...

Look for the Federal Reserve to repeat last year’s performance and raise interest rates one quarter of one percent in December, according to some supporters and critics of the U.S. central bank, enabling the Fed to say it did, in fact, lift interest rates this year. During its meeting in Washington, DC, this week, the Fed once again, as expected, opted to hold rates unchanged and did not tip its hand about a future move, although some market participants came away with the impression an increase in September is a little more likely than had been the case after the central bank’s last meeting. The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee last raised...

Marketplace lender Social Finance is preparing to issue a $480.55 million ABS backed by unsecured consumer loans, its second such deal to date. So far, 10 of its 12 securitizations have used student loans as collateral. According to a report by DBRS, SCLP 2016-2 consists of $425.88 million of class A notes and $54.67 million of B notes. The package is expected to price early next week, but at press time no information was available regarding the coupons. The class A notes received...

Two Harbors Investment announced this week that it will discontinue its mortgage conduit and securitization operations. The real estate investment trust was the top issuer of jumbo mortgage-backed securities in the first half of 2016, with $628.8 million in volume, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets. Five Oaks Investment also announced that it will stop jumbo conduit activities on Aug. 1. Hatteras Financial, a third jumbo conduit related to a REIT, recently pulled ...

Pricing for new jumbo mortgage-backed securities has improved recently, prompting Redwood Trust to issue a new transaction relatively quickly. Redwood issued its first jumbo MBS of the year, a $344.89 million deal, in early June. While the company issued an average of one jumbo MBS per month in 2013, the real estate investment trust has largely shifted to whole-loan sales of jumbos in recent years due to better pricing for such transactions. At an investor conference ...

The second large prime non-agency mortgage-backed security from JPMorgan Chase will differ somewhat from the pioneering deal the bank priced in March. Among other changes, the Chase Mortgage Trust 2016-2 is larger than the previous MBS and includes a higher share of jumbos, according to presale reports. The MBS issued late this week totaled $2.65 billion, with mortgages eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises accounting for 55.0 percent of ...

The securitization rate for adjustable-rate mortgages has declined significantly in the past year, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Some 11.4 percent of ARMs originated in the first quarter of 2016 were included in mortgage-backed securities, down from 20.1 percent in the first quarter of 2015. When ARMs make it into MBS, it’s generally in securities from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. The vast majority of non-agency ... [Includes two data charts]

Other issuers are looking to follow Lone Star Funds in issuing rated nonprime mortgage-backed securities that include non-qualified mortgages, according to industry participants. The $161.71 million COLT 2016-1 Mortgage Loan Trust was the first post-crisis nonprime MBS backed by new originations to receive a rating. The deal received an A rating from DBRS and Fitch Ratings. “DBRS is currently evaluating similar pools from various originators,” according to the rating service ...

Despite quickening refinance activity, the FHA single-family market soared over the $1 trillion mark in loans pooled in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis. A record $1.001 trillion of FHA single-family loans made up the lion’s share of collateral backing Ginnie MBS as of the end of June. That was a 1.3 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 5.5 percent gain from the midway point in 2015. Steady growth in FHA loans helped push Ginnie single-family MBS to $1.576 trillion outstanding, topping Freddie Mac for second place in the agency market. The VA loan guaranty program was still the fastest-growing corner of the government-insured market, with total VA loans in Ginnie pools up 3.8 percent from March and 16.7 percent higher than a year ago. The actual amount of FHA and VA loans outstanding is somewhat ... [ 4 charts ]

USMI Names MGIC Chief as Chairman. U.S. Mortgage Insurance has tapped Patrick Sinks, chief executive of MGIC Investment Corp., to be the trade group’s new chairman. Sinks succeeds USMI Chairman Rohit Gupta, president and CEO of Genworth Mortgage Insurance. Sinks served previously as USMI’s vice chairman. Bradley Shuster, chairman/chief executive for NMI Holdings, will take overNew Reverse-Mortgage Product. California Mortgage Advisors has expanded its reverse-mortgage menu, with the addition of a non-FHA reverse mortgage option of up to $6 million for select clients. With the new product, CMA joins a handful of private reverse-mortgage lenders that will consider properties valued up to $6 million. Last year, American Advisors Group, the largest Home Equity Conversion Mortgage lender, announced its AAG Advantage lending program, which features the ...