Activity in the non-agency MBS market involving nonperforming loans and re-performing loans is expected to continue to flourish through at least the end of this year, according to industry analysts. Vintage mortgages in scratch-and-dent deals accounted for 42.0 percent of the non-agency MBS issued in the first half of 2015, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. The $15.60 billion in scratch-and-dent volume included a mix of nonperforming loans and re-performing loans. Issuance of non-agency MBS backed by NPLs and RPLs through two quarters this year equaled...
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers from the House of Representatives found fault with the Obama administration this week for not making housing finance and reform of the government-sponsored enterprises a priority. Failing that, they’re not certain there would be enough support from both sides of the aisle to get a comprehensive bill pushed through the pipeline and signed by the president. “I don’t think the White House has sent a positive signal about participating in this process,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-TX, during a housing finance reform discussion in Washington, DC, this week sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “It’s such a big lift. You need to make sure that if you’re going down that road, that you have the opportunity to accomplish something.” His colleague, Rep. John Delaney, D-MD, agreed...
The average daily trading volume in agency MBS fell to $183.7 billion in June, the lowest reading of the year and another sign that all is not well for anyone who makes their living off of actual trading as opposed to being involved in new issuance. “There are a lot of people out there buying on credit and keeping MBS,” said Christopher Whalen, a senior managing director in the Financial Institutions Ratings Group at Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Whalen added...
JPMorgan Chase has released an expansive look into third-party due diligence findings on a pending jumbo MBS under new disclosure requirements from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The increased loan-level disclosures could boost investor confidence in new non-agency MBS. Documents filed through the SEC’s electronic system and posted on the agency’s website include detailed, loan-level reports from three due diligence firms that examined mortgages set to be included in JPMorgan Mortgage Trust 2015-4. American Mortgage Consultants, a due diligence provider, said...
New issuance of non-mortgage ABS increased in most major product categories during the second quarter of 2015, although a slowdown in floorplan deals dampened the party slightly. The ABS market generated $54.15 billion in new issuance during the second quarter, a gain of 5.8 percent from the first three months of 2015. It was the strongest new issuance figure since the financial market meltdown, with the previous high ($54.22 billion) coming in the third quarter of 2007. ABS issuance has climbed...[Includes two data tables]
Originations to first-time homebuyers perform worse than originations for repeat buyers, with the differences tied to factors beyond solely whether the borrower is a first-time homebuyer, according to new research from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a working paper published late last week, Saty Patrabansh, a senior economist at the FHFA, determined that the difference in performance between the first-time homebuyers and repeat buyers can be attributed to differences in the distributional make-up of the two groups and not to the premise that first-time homebuyers are an inherently riskier group. He analyzed...
For mortgage companies that were hoping to go public this year, they might as well forget about it. As one industry analyst put it: “The IPO market isn’t even on life support. It’s just plain dead.” Although many privately held mortgage firms are enjoying a strong year in both lending and profitability, the initial public offering market is dormant for three reasons: Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment Management Corp. This year, the once “big three” nonbanks have paid...
While the Federal Housing Finance Agency takes its time deciding whether nonbanks should be allowed to use captive insurance units to become members of a Federal Home Loan Bank, real estate investment trusts appear to be ramping up their borrowings from the system’s advance window. At least that’s what Inside Mortgage Finance found when it recently conducted a spot check of mortgage REITs that have gained access to the FHLBank system via a captive insurance subsidiary. Redwood Trust, for example, had...
Depository institutions – along with the top tier of companies that service loans pooled in mortgage-backed securities by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae – continued to pull back from the market during the second quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions serviced a total of $3.218 trillion of mortgage servicing rights connected with agency MBS as of the end of the second quarter. That was down 6.9 percent from the first quarter of 2015. Although depositories remain the dominant force in the agency MSR market, accounting for 64.2 percent of servicing on outstanding single-family MBS, nonbanks continued...[Includes four data tables]