July is usually a good month for agency MBS issuance when the housing market is strong. In 2018, the fundamentals just weren’t there. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae guaranteed $101.39 billion of new single-family MBS last month, a disappointing 0.6 percent lower than in June. Purchase mortgages accounted for a substantial 74.4 percent of July issuance, although volume was up just 3.2 percent from June. The housing market ... [Includes two data charts]

Originators stranded with VA “orphan loans” that cannot be securitized in a Ginnie Mae MBS are finding temporary workarounds to deal with the problem, while maintaining hope for a potential solution from the government. However, few firms are holding their breath that Ginnie will come to the rescue, especially since the agency has maintained that only new legislation can solve the problem. The problem was caused by a quirk in a law aimed at preventing the churning of VA ...

Refinances of outstanding single-family rental securitizations are accounting for a growing share of new issuance. The trend has been prompted, in part, by home price appreciation, which has made it more difficult for some firms to source new properties. Some $4.41 billion of single-family rental securities were issued in the first half of 2018, according to Inside MBS & ABS. Blackstone Group’s Invitation Homes dominates the sector. The firm, which merged with Starwood Waypoint Homes ...

Closures of stores that issued credit cards haven’t prompted a significant uptick in charge-offs in recent years, according to Fitch Ratings. Analysts suggest that consumer-related trends remain the main driver of credit card ABS performance, and performance looks poised to decline. A number of retail card issuers have declared bankruptcy, closed large numbers of stores or liquidated in recent years. Fitch analyzed the relevance of the aggregate number of locations closed per ...

A report from a Standard & Poor’s structured finance team says several collateralized loan obligation transactions rated between 1994 and 2009 are about to close with minimal defaults while a re-port from Moody’s Investors Service warns that apparently harmless provisions of CLOs can actually increase risks to investors. It has been nearly a decade since the last CLO 1.0 deal was issued, and the last of these transactions are nearing the end of their lives, according to ...

The prepayment rates for ABS backed by Property Assessed Clean Energy programs are on the rise which can have mixed effects on the notes, warned Morningstar Credit Ratings in a new report. The monthly annualized conditional prepayment rates averages for residential PACE ABS rated by Morningstar have been increasing from “single digits to high teens” since 2016, said the credit rating service. “Investors should pay attention to prepayment rates because they can have ...

Sales of agency mortgage servicing rights were up in the second quarter, mostly as a result of heavier coissuance volume, according to an exclusive new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis and ranking. Servicing rights on $129.57 billion of agency mortgages changed hands during the second quarter, up 6.4 percent from the first three months of the year. The data are culled on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities ... [Includes three data charts]

Michael Bright’s quick, effective response to the VA loan-churning problem that led to rapid prepayments in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities earned kudos from senators during his confirmation hearing this week. Judging by the positive responses of members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Bright, the administration’s choice to lead Ginnie Mae, will likely get the job. Bright received praise particularly for the swift disciplinary action he took against lender/issuers that were targeting and misleading VA borrowers into repeated refinancing without any clear benefit. Nine lenders were directed to take corrective actions while three of the worst offenders were barred from the agency’s multi-issuer security pools. Bright joined Ginnie Mae in July 2017 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Two months later he began an investigation into rapidly prepaying VA loans ...

Interest-only loans represent a growing share of collateral securitized by commercial MBS conduits over the past few years. Credit rating agencies are concerned because IO loans generally perform worse than amortizing mortgages.

Moves by three issuers of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities to allow for third-party due diligence reviews to be completed on fewer than 100 percent of the loans in an MBS could increase the risk of losses for MBS investors, according to Moody’s Investors Service. In a report released this week, Moody’s said narrower due diligence reviews increase the likelihood of defective loans appearing in non-agency MBS. The rating service added that representations ... [Includes five briefs]