Jumbo lenders continue to loosen underwriting requirements in an effort to compete for volume. Some lenders are even offering jumbos with loan-to-value ratios as high as 95 percent, while three years ago a 70 percent LTV ratio was the norm. “We’ve seen a fairly rapid loosening of standards on jumbo loans,” said Michael Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, during an event hosted this week by the Urban Institute. “They’re still tight, but now you can get a 5 percent down jumbo loan. And minimum credit scores have been coming down.” The MBA’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index has shown...

Lenders are getting more comfortable with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule, according to industry participants. Loans that do not meet standards for qualified mortgages are only available in the non-agency market and most have been retained in portfolio to this point. Many lenders participating in a recent roundtable hosted by Standard & Poor’s said interest-only mortgages continue to be attractive products, even though the loans are non-QMs. “These loans have been originated post-crisis, and originators expect to continue lending to high-quality borrowers with substantial equity in their properties,” S&P said in a summary of the roundtable discussion. A large bank lender at the S&P roundtable said...

More investors would be willing to buy new non-agency mortgage-backed securities if loans in the deals had prepayment penalties, according to an industry analyst. The penalties offer investors protection, but their use has been limited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule, among other factors. Lawrence White, a professor and deputy chair in economics at the New York University Stern School of Business, suggested that the non-agency MBS market would see increased demand from investors, particularly insurance companies, if loans in non-agency MBS included prepayment penalties. “These institutions have largely stayed...

Standards for qualified-residential mortgages along with risk-retention requirements for certain non-agency mortgage-backed securities take effect Dec. 24, 2015. The final rule establishing the implementation date was published in the Federal Register at the end of December 2014. Federal regulators first detailed...[Includes two briefs]

Ginnie Mae issuance fell 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 as the agency closed a busy year with more than $288.1 billion in total business, according to analysis of agency data. Home-purchase loans, at $192.6 billion, comprised the bulk of new government-loan securitizations, while refinances accounted for $73.0 billion. Loan modifications represented $22.6 billion in total issuances. FHA funneled $158.1 billion in loans to Ginnie Mae while VA and Rural Housing Development loans accounted for $109.5 billion and $19.9 billion, respectively. Wells Fargo led all Ginnie MBS issuers with $57.6 billion followed by PennyMac in distant second with $16.7 billion. Chase Home Finance landed in third place with $15.0 billion while Freedom Mortgage closed the year in fourth place with $14.8 billion. Rounding out the top five Ginnie Mae issuers, Quicken Loans ended 2014 with ... [ 1 chart ]

It was the strongest refi volume of the year, and it helped offset a 9.8 percent drop in purchase-mortgage securitization over the same period.

Moody’s noted that 88.1 percent of the mortgages slated for securitization have been modified.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a modest decline in production of new single-family mortgage-backed securities at the end of 2014, but a rally in refinance lending softened the thud. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized $179.38 billion of single-family MBS during the fourth quarter of last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data. That was down 2.1 percent from the third quarter of 2014. But the GSEs securitized...[Includes three data charts]

Ocwen Financial’s massive exit from the agency servicing market is expected to be a multi-year phase-out complicated by its past regulatory problems and a weak market for legacy product, according to industry advisors. If the company follows through on its promise to exit all segments of the agency market – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae – it will wind up selling a hefty $182.51 billion of residential mortgage servicing rights, based on third quarter survey numbers submitted to Inside Mortgage Finance. At Sept. 30, the nonbank serviced...

Molly Boesel, a senior economist at CoreLogic, said mortgages originated in the past four years are among the most pristine loans made in the past two decades.