Ginnie Mae has announced a policy change to ease investor concern over recent streamlined refinancing trends involving a small number of mortgage loans in Ginnie pools. The policy change addresses the issue of premature streamline refinancing of certain loans in Ginnie Mae I single-issuer pools that threatens to deflate investors’ expectation of a full 100-percent return on their MBS investments. “Investor participation … depends...

Freddie Mac has begun pilot testing its new Dealer Direct system for swapping legacy participation certificates for new single securities with a select group of dealers, the government-sponsored enterprise said in an update issued this week. In transitioning to the single security, Freddie will give all investors in its existing MBS that have a 45-day payment cycle the option to exchange them for the new 55-day securities. That process will be transacted through the Dealer Direct electronic platform. Holders of legacy MBS will work...

Mortgage industry representatives are calling upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to do more to facilitate the correction of errors made under the enhanced disclosure regime of the agency’s integrated disclosure rule, to reduce or eliminate disruptions in the secondary market as well as boost access to credit. The pleas were made in conjunction with the industry’s broader response to the CFPB’s proposed clarifying rulemaking related to its so-called TRID rule, issued under the authority of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. In a comment letter sent this week to the bureau, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition urged...

The average daily trading volume of agency MBS hit $223.2 billion in September, the strongest reading of the year and a sign that liquidity in the market has improved. According to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, daily trading volume increased by 17.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago. But the year-to-date averages are much closer: $206.6 billion for 2016 compared to $199.9 billion last year. In the agency space there is...

The jumbo market is dominated by retail lenders to a greater extent than either conventional-conforming production or government-insured lending, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. A group of 19 top jumbo lenders reported $92.45 billion in jumbo originations through their retail operations during the first half of 2016. That represented 76.8 percent of the $120.37 billion in total jumbo production for the group. The 19 lenders accounted...[Includes one data table]

The latest jumbo mortgage-backed security from Redwood Trust includes some differences compared with the two jumbo MBS the firm issued earlier this year. The $343.16 million deal includes loans from many lenders and contributions from a Federal Home Loan Bank program. Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2016-3 received preliminary AAA ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service. The MBS will include...

Nonbanks crossed a threshold in the third quarter of 2016, posting a hefty 6.3 percent increase in their combined Ginnie Mae servicing portfolio, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis. Nonbanks serviced $826.6 billion of Ginnie single-family mortgage-backed securities as of the end of September. That represented 51.3 percent of the total Ginnie market. The nonbank servicing total includes a small amount of Ginnie servicing held by state housing finance agencies, roughly 1.0 percent of the entire market. But it doesn’t include the significant amount of Ginnie servicing that nonbanks do as subservicers for both depository and nonbank clients. Interestingly, the biggest gain for nonbanks in percentage terms came in servicing VA loans, which rose 8.1 percent from the second quarter to $252.1 billion, or 51.0 percent of the market. The VA sector is one business from ... [4 charts ]

Nonbank mortgage servicers expanded their footprint in agency mortgage servicing rights during the third quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Overall, there were $6.062 trillion of single-family mortgages outstanding tied to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities at the end of September. (The table below excludes two significant categories: loans subserviced on behalf of the agencies and some seasoned loans for which no servicer is disclosed. This mostly affects the Fannie data.) The September figure was...[Includes three data tables]

RBS Securities has agreed to pay $120 million to the state of Connecticut to resolve an investigation into its underwriting of residential MBS shortly before the 2008 collapse of the financial markets. CT Attorney General George Jepsen and Department of Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez announced the agreement, which, they said, is the largest single settlement in Connecticut’s history. It also ends a four-year state investigation into RBS’s securities underwriting and due diligence practices. At issue were...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a robust 29.7 percent jump in single-family mortgage business during the third quarter, with most of the gain coming from the purchase-mortgage side of the business. And more purchase-mortgage business usually means a bigger share for correspondent lenders. Correspondent originations accounted...[Includes two data tables]