The supply of outstanding residential MBS in the market continued to grow at a measured pace during the second quarter of 2017, thanks to the robust single-family MBS machines at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. A total of $6.675 trillion of single-family MBS was outstanding as of the end of June, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. That was up 0.8 percent from the end of March, and it represented a record 64.0 percent of outstanding single-family mortgage debt. The Federal Reserve this week reported that home loan debt outstanding rose 0.7 percent to $10.430 trillion during the second quarter. All the MBS growth was...[Includes three data tables]

MBS and ABS investors have more cash than they know what to do with, according to participants at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week. “Liquidity is strong across the spectrum and probably the best we’ve ever seen for structured products,” said Scott Levy, a senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities. He noted that three years ago, some of the securities the firm was involved with had 15 investors; now, similar deals might have 70 investors. “There’s a lot of demand and a lot less supply,” Levy added. More than 4,100 people registered...

Issuance of non-agency MBS backed by newly originated home loans remains well below levels seen before the financial crisis. While new regulations have stopped some pre-crisis loan types from being originated, industry participants suggest that other major factors are also limiting the supply of loans available for MBS. Chris Helwig, a managing director at Amherst Pierpont, noted that banks are competing for prime jumbos and holding them in portfolio, and many borrowers who previously might have received subprime mortgages opt for FHA loans. “All that is left for non-agency MBS is...

The great unwinding of the Federal Reserve’s massive intervention in the MBS market post-financial crisis is set to begin soon. This week, surprising no one, the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee announced it will start to normalize its huge balance sheet next month along the parameters it first outlined in June. From October through December, the decline in the Fed’s securities holdings will be capped at $6 billion per month for Treasuries and $4 billion per month for agency MBS. Next year, the declines will gradually increase to $30 billion a month for Treasuries and $20 billion a month for MBS. Fed Chair Janet Yellen reiterated...

Ginnie Mae and the Department of Veterans Affairs have created a joint task force to deal with improper early refinancing of VA loans – a practice the agencies thought they had eliminated but which has reemerged in the last couple of weeks. The task force will be monitoring closely monthly VA refinancing data and will develop additional policies to augment the current policy, which Ginnie, in consultation with the VA, issued last year to curb churning of VA loans in its MBS. Responding to concerns raised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, acting Ginnie President and Chief Operations Officer Michael Bright acknowledged...

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS totaled a tepid $199.8 billion in August, the lowest reading since May, according to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Then again, volume wasn’t too far off trading activity in the prior two months, which came in at $200.5 billion and $200.9 billion. It appears that investors haven’t had...

A former Deutsche Bank employee is at the center of a lawsuit brought by the government over the sale of more than $1 billion of non-agency MBS. It’s rare when the government focuses on an individual for mortgage fraud, but the Department of Justice said the bank’s former head of subprime trading allegedly defrauded investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The civil complaint was filed in Brooklyn’s federal court against Paul Mangione for knowingly selling bad subprime mortgages financed during the crisis and misleading investors about loan quality. The complaint alleges that he engaged in fraudulent schemes involving the origination practices of Deutsche Bank’s subsidiary, DB Home Lending LLC, which originated the bulk of the loans. The securities were sold...

The seasonal surge in primary market mortgage originations stood in stark contrast to a slump in new residential MBS issuance during the second quarter of 2017. Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $455.0 billion of new first-lien loans during the April-June cycle, an 18.2 percent increase from the first three months of the year, according to estimates by Inside Mortgage Finance. But the secondary market generated just $294.7 billion in MBS backed by purchase and refinance loans – a 5.3 percent decline. The result was...[Includes one data table]

An affiliate of Interval Leisure Group priced a timeshare securitization last week as the market for such deals keeps humming along. Timeshare securities are backed by vacation ownership interest loans that tend to perform relatively well and carry attractive yields. Some $2.0 billion of timeshare ABS have priced this year, according to S&P Global Ratings. In all of 2016, $2.6 billion of timeshare ABS was issued, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. VSE 2017-A VOI Mortgage from ILG is...

A dispute involving the liquidation of a vintage collateralized-debt obligation has the potential to upend standard practices and confidence in the securitization industry, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group. Senior investors in Taberna Preferred Funding IV – a $673.3 million CDO issued in 2005 – are seeking to force a liquidation of the deal via bankruptcy. The bankruptcy is being pursued by a group of investors identified as Opportunities II Ltd., HH HoldCo Co-Investment Fund, L.P., and Real Estate Opps Ltd. The investors appear to have purchased senior tranches of the CDO only in recent years. SFIG filed...