Ocwen Financial recently filed a lawsuit against Fidelity Information Services, which completed a two-year review of Ocwen as part of an order by the California Department of Business Oversight. Ocwen alleged that FIS submitted false, fraudulent and improper invoices for the review, including invoices from strip clubs and casinos. FIS has disputed the allegations. The Structured Finance Industry Group is...

Ginnie is adding more muscle to a performance-measurement tool to help improve mortgage-backed securities issuers’ ability to compare their performance with other issuers in terms of meeting agency requirements. Other enhancements to the Issuer Operation Performance Profile (IOPP) would increase scoring transparency and make performance reports clearer and easier to understand, the agency said. Introduced in 2015, the IOPP is essentially a performance scorecard to gauge effectiveness as a Ginnie issuer. Issuers are scored based on a pre-determined set of metrics for performance and for default. Each metric is weighted in the issuer’s overall performance score and – for single-family issuers only – default management score. If an issuer fails in one metric, it may be required to develop a remediation plan to improve performance. The number, type and weight of the metrics may be ...

Ginnie Mae securitization of single-family mortgage securities backed by USDA loans fell in the first quarter of 2017. One-time leader Chase Home Finance was in fifth place after a whopping 31.6 percent decline in USDA activity and an even larger 87.4 percent drop year over year. A total of $4.6 billion in USDA loans were securitized in Ginnie Mae pools during the first three months of 2017, down 9.5 percent from the previous quarter. On the other hand, year-over-year securitization of USDA home loans rose 17.6 percent. Top-ranked Freedom Mortgage and 7th-ranked Ditech Financial each reported a tenfold increase in USDA volume year over year. Freedom Mortgage led the market with $887.3 million despite a 20.4 percent decline from the prior quarter Second-ranked PennyMac closed the quarter with $661.6 million of securitized USDA loans, while Wells Fargo reported a 9.3 percent decrease to ... [Chart]

Ginnie Mae is sailing without a captain, a fact that is causing some concern among mortgage bankers and mortgage-backed securities investors. The agency tasked with securitizing government-backed mortgages has been without a president since Democrat Ted Tozer left on Jan. 20, 2017, the same day that President-elect Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Since that time, Nancy Corsiglia, a career Ginnie official, has been acting president. She was elevated from her position as chief operating officer. Industry officials who claim to have knowledge of the selection process maintain that mortgage banke David Kittle, president of the Mortgage Collaborative, is the leading candidate to fill the post with Michael Bright, a director at the Milken Institute, a close second. One source close to the situation claimed that background checks by the Trump White House are likely ...

Jumbo mortgage production declined 32.9 percent during the first quarter of 2017, along with virtually every other part of the home-loan market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. An estimated $70.0 billion of non-agency jumbo mortgages were originated during the first quarter, a 30.0 percent decline from the previous three-month period. In addition, some $29.0 billion of conforming-jumbo mortgages were delivered into Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities in the first three months of the year. These are loans on one-unit properties that exceed the baseline agency loan limits and are eligible because they’re secured by homes in designated high-cost markets. The agency-jumbo market was...[Includes three data tables]

It’s been a busy spring for sales of mortgage servicing rights, with investment advisors pushing out several new auction notices a week. And there’s even more good news: for the first time in several years, prices appear to be balanced, with neither buyers nor sellers having the upper hand. “This is the most balanced market I’ve seen since 2013 or 2014,” said one East Coast-based investment banker, who spoke under the condition he and his firm remain anonymous. “Right now, I think both buyers and sellers can get good deals.” Another positive for the market: “In terms of bidders, there seems to be plenty.” Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, sees...

Credit Suisse this week issued a $91.2 million non-agency MBS backed by seasoned FHA mortgages. CSMC 2017-FHA1 marked the first non-agency securitization of re-performing FHA mortgages since 2010. The deal received an A rating from DBRS and an A1 rating from Moody’s Investors Service with subordination of 16.50 percent on the senior tranche. Moody’s cited a number of credit “challenges,” including uncertainty about FHA insurance payouts for liquidated mortgages, insufficient information on loan modifications and weak representations and warranties. The mortgages in the deal have...

While the industry continues to debate the merits of allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to build a capital cushion for “zero day” in 2018, investors in MBS have a different agenda: making sure that whatever the future holds for the government-sponsored enterprises, it had better include a federal guarantee on conventional mortgage securities. Without it, the MBS market would suffer greatly – as would residential lending and the sale of new and existing homes. So far, no one knows...

The credit landscape is improving as more lenders introduce new credit-scoring mechanisms and eligibility requirements, but it may not mean much for mortgage origination volume, at least in the short term, according to a new study by mortgage consulting firm the Stratmor Group. The study noted that when faced with slower housing growth due to demographics, affordability, and higher healthcare costs, lenders will look to loosen underwriting standards to feed their production capacity. Rob Chrisman, senior advisor with Stratmor, said many of the “good borrowers” have refinanced and bought homes already, leaving lenders with borrowers of lesser credit quality. “Lenders and investors, too, are...

Four whole-business securitizations totaling $3.58 billion are in the works, according to presale reports, including a $900.0 million deal from Coinstar. The securitization from Coinstar received a preliminary BBB rating from Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The company owns nearly 20,000 kiosks that count change located in grocery stores and other retail venues, mostly in the U.S. The company generates...