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.

The National Association of Realtors recently estimated that in 2014, nearly 234,000 creditworthy borrowers were priced out of the housing market because of high FHA insurance premiums.

MBA's Stevens believes that making a change in the PSPAs would not go over very well in a Republican-controlled House and Senate.

Potential actions by regulators also give non-agency MBS investors cause for concern.