S&P has been the top non-agency MBS rating agency over the years but DBRS captured the title in 2012 with 55 percent of rated transactions, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

“As expected, we don’t believe any mortgages have been sold out of trusts to the city of Richmond,” said Tom Deutsch, executive director of the American Securitization Forum.

PHH Mortgage may unload billions of dollars in housing receivables, while remaining as the subservicer on the underlying loans.

Equifax has enhanced its “retro income verification service,” known as “Point In Time.”

Mini-correspondent lending is hot, but wholesale may be on the decline. Surprise: RE/MAX files to go public.

Roughly, 60 percent of real estate loans made by credit unions are sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, compared to only 44 percent for all financial institutions.

Combined with the 15 companies that previously reported earnings, mortgage banking income jumped 10 percent in the second quarter, to $7.51 billion.

Redwood Trust is about to have company from other real estate investment trusts looking to issue non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed securities. Two Harbors Investment will issue its first jumbo MBS later this month, and PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust plans to issue a security by the end of September. Redwood helped revive non-agency jumbo MBS issuance beginning in 2010 and has been active in the sector ever since. Following the financial crisis, no other REITs joined Redwood even though ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency may pursue a fraud lawsuit against Ally Financial despite the bankruptcy status of Ally’s Residential Capital mortgage unit, a Manhattan federal judge ruled this week. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote denied Ally’s request to stay the FHFA’s litigation, a typical motion by bankrupt debtors to defer litigation as they seek to reorganize. In 2011, the FHFA filed 18 lawsuits alleging that Ally and other large financial institutions misrepresented the quality of non-agency mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the 2008 financial crisis.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has hired Washington-based Spencer Stuart to help find a chief executive to man the helm of the “common securitization platform” project. One former Fannie Mae official familiar with the effort told Inside The GSEs that the project has taken on a more “serious” urgency at the agency. “I’m not sure of the timeline, but it’s moving along.” One mortgage official who was approached about the job – but who made it clear he is not interested – said that the CEO FHFA hires “will need to be creative, revolutionary and good at many things.”