Real estate investment trusts that have been gobbling up MBS the past few years – and paying hefty dividends in the process – may have some more room to run, especially if interest rates remain relatively benign. “Given the tailwinds of lower prepayment speeds and Fed purchases, we believe that payout levels should remain stable in the near term,” said one veteran analyst who works for a top five bank. This analyst, who tracks several large REITs that invest in agency securities, added...

Fitch Ratings has consolidated a number of key rating drivers into updated master rating criteria for residential MBS backed by newly originated and seasoned residential mortgages. The latest report replaces the July 2013 RMBS criteria, and while no material changes have been made to the overarching process, a few tweaks have been made. The important rating drivers that were incorporated include...

A GSE reform bill filed late this week by a trio of House Democrats is less a last ditch effort to push their measure across the finish line this year than a bid to have the first word in next year’s debate over housing finance reform, note industry observers. The Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, by Reps. John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE), and Jim Himes (CT), follows through on their January draft proposal to seek a “middle ground” between the existing, politically untenable legislative proposals.

The rebound in new business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the second quarter of 2014 was fueled by a hefty increase in purchase-mortgage activity, but it also featured clear shifts in the volume of loans coming from different kinds of lenders. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level data on mortgage-backed securities issued by the two government-sponsored enterprises shows that nonbank lenders continued to ... [Includes 3 data charts]

Thanks to lousy origination profits posted over the past six months, mortgage bankers increasingly are boosting earnings through servicing-released arrangements, causing a mini-boom in flow transactions. “You might say we’re back to a normal operating environment where originations are cash-flow negative,” which is forcing lenders to book profits through MSR sales, said Jeff Levine, managing director of Houlihan Lokey, an investment banking firm. But Levine is...

The Treasury Department issued a wide-ranging request for comments last week as part of an effort to increase issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities. Treasury officials said they are working toward developing standards and practices for the non-agency MBS market. “The private-label securities market has been dormant since the financial crisis,” said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. “The fact is, we need to attract more private capital to the housing market ...

The new lenders contributing to jumbo mortgage-backed securities could pose risks to investors in the deals, according to Standard & Poor’s. The rating service said that due diligence and strong underwriting standards currently mitigate the risks, but there are concerns that the lenders with limited track records won’t be able to fulfill representation-and-warranty repurchase obligations. Jumbo MBS have seen contributions from a mix of lenders. The main contributors ...

The anxiously-awaited Spring surge in purchase-mortgage lending finally arrived at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during recent months, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis of loan-level data from the two government-sponsored enterprises. The two GSEs issued $141.83 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter, an encouraging 9.8 percent increase from the dreary levels recorded in the first three months of 2014. During the first quarter of this year, Fannie/Freddie MBS production set a 14-year low of just $129.21 billion. Clearly, the market isn’t...[Includes three data charts]

The Treasury Department announced late last week that it is working to develop market practices and standards that would be necessary “to support a safe and sustainable non-agency MBS housing finance channel of significant scale.” As part of the effort, the Treasury posed nine questions to industry participants and is accepting comments on the issue until Aug. 8. Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury for housing finance policy, said regulators have addressed most of the problems seen in the non-agency MBS market before the financial crisis. “The last remaining piece of the puzzle is putting in place standards and mechanisms to protect investors in residential MBS, while also clearly defining issuer responsibilities so that they have the confidence to return to the market at scale,” he said. Regulators may have “addressed”...

MBS prices have been hovering around their highs for the year and could stay that way through the fall with minor corrections occurring along the way. “Prices have risen even on the good economic news,” said Joe Farr, director of sales and marketing for MBSQuoteline. “But they fell by about 1 percent over the past week.” Recently, when the Consumer Price Index rose, there was...