As safe as the qualified mortgage space might appear to be, there have been a number of challenges to address and overcome for smaller institutions originating QM loans intended for sale in the secondary market, according to a representative of one such lender at the American Bankers Association’s 2014 regulatory compliance conference in New Orleans this week. Bruce Schultz, senior vice president and head of secondary mortgage operations for SpiritBank, a family-owned community bank in Tulsa, OK, told attendees he’s heard from several industry peers who have expressed the view that the secondary market ‘would be a slam-dunk’ for his institution under the QM rule because “‘you’ve got automated underwriting.’” Maybe not...

American Capital Agency Corp., the second-largest REIT MBS investor, reported a sharp 14.6 percent drop in its holdings during the first quarter. But officials are upbeat about the future.

“This appears to be very good news and is a credit to our collective work with the Coalition for Sensible Housing Policy,” the National Association of Realtors told its members.

Up until the housing crash of 2008, it was not uncommon for many warehouse lenders to extend lines of credit to buy MSRs or finance the holding of the asset.

Rosner of Graham Fisher & Co. also wants to see the use “stringent methods” to price guarantees separate from the GSE's.

Fitch Ratings said the spike was an aberration, caused by a servicing transfer, not sudden poor performance by pristine jumbo borrowers.

How much stock to insiders at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac actually own?

Strong appetite from lenders for jumbo mortgages wasn’t enough to overcome the overall decline in mortgage production in the first quarter of 2014. Jumbo originations declined by 21.4 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. And the estimated $44.0 billion in jumbos originated in the first quarter was down by 31.3 percent compared with the same period in 2013. The non-agency jumbo sector has gained some market share during that time as overall production has declined even more. Jumbos accounted for 18.7 percent of total originations in the first quarter of 2014, a level not seen since 2004. Wells Fargo remained...[Includes one data chart]

Among the 12 questions that the FHFA asks the public to consider is this: “If the enterprises [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] continue to raise g-fees, will overall loan originations decrease?”

Agency issuance of new single-family MBS edged up slightly from April to May, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of loan-level data. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae produced a combined $68.66 billion of new MBS last month, although that was only a 2.4 percent increase over April. There are some positives in the underlying data, however. First, purchase-mortgage volume increases outpaced...[Includes two data charts]