It was pretty much stimulus as usual at the Federal Open Market Committee this week, as the Fed showed not the slightest indication of when it would begin winding down the third phase of its quantitative easing program, known informally as QE3 when it was first unveiled, but increasingly referred to as QE Infinity by those who emphasize its long, drawn-out nature. The status quo results mean the Fed will continue adding to its agency MBS portfolio at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month, and keep plowing its principal payments from its agency debt and MBS holdings back into agency MBS and rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. Among those voting in favor of keeping the Fed’s pedal to the metal were...

The jumbo MBS market is frozen because investors in the AAA tranches are scarce and still lack confidence in the product following the housing bust and the ensuing tidal wave of litigation swamping issuers and underwriters. According to MBS pioneer Lewis Ranieri, there’s only one to fix the problem: give investors more information on the deals. At a speech this week during the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association, Ranieri, the chairman and CEO of Shellpoint Partners, noted...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency declared this week that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will finish making claims on pre-conservatorship mortgage acquisitions by the end of this year. “It is time for us to wrap up all our open issues dealing with that period and move on,” said FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco during a speech at the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “I look forward to a speedy resolution of remaining claims in the coming months.” The two GSEs became wards of the federal government in September 2008. For years, lenders have complained...

Standard & Poor’s rated more non-agency MBS, by dollar volume, than any of its peers during the first nine months of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. S&P rated $11.65 billion of non-agency MBS issued through the end of September. Although that was more than any of the other four rating services, it represented just 43.4 percent of total issuance in a market that is significantly more fragmented than it was before the financial crisis. Back in 2006, for example, S&P rated...[Includes two data charts]

Ginnie Mae remains a very good profit center for MBS issuers and investors, making government-backed lending appealing and beneficial to consumers, according to securitization experts. Government loans offer great value to lenders because they cover broader borrower eligibility than conventional loan products and lenders can execute more efficiently, said panelists at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference this week. The discussion focused on government loan programs – FHA, VA and Rural Housing Service – and on execution options for the loans and their mortgage servicing rights (MSRs). CMG Financial has found...

Citigroup Global Markets Realty is preparing to issue a non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security next week, according to a preliminary term sheet provided to Inside Nonconforming Markets. The issuance would come just two weeks after Shellpoint Partners scrapped a planned jumbo MBS because of tepid investor demand. Blackstone is also offering the first securitization backed by rental proceeds from real estate owned properties and Freddie Mac is preparing its second non-agency risk-sharing transaction ...

JPMorgan Chase’s settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency regarding representation and warranty claims on non-agency mortgage-backed securities could prompt large settlements by other banks, according to industry analysts. Chase agreed last week to pay $4.0 billion to settle claims on $33.8 billion of non-agency MBS purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The securities were issued between 2004 and 2007 by Chase, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. The settlement sets a “relatively high bar” for ...

FY 2013 Actuarial Report to Congress on the State of the MMIF Delayed. Release of the FY 2013 actuarial audit of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund will be delayed because of the recent government shutdown, according to a government source. No other details were provided. The FHA recently notified Congress that it would seek a mandatory appropriation of approximately $1.7 billion to bolster its capital reserves for expected future losses. FHA officials said the draw does not suggest anything dire but is simply a matter of ...

Shellpoint Partners this week pulled the plug on its second jumbo non-agency MBS issuance of the year and will instead sell the mortgages as whole loans. Shellpoint Asset Funding Trust 2013-2 was initially offered as a $308.64 million deal in September. The company then reduced the offering to a $250.85 million securitization with a number of tweaks aimed at attracting investors. In the end, the company couldn’t structure...

The securitization of income-property mortgages in 2013 remains on track to be the best year since the financial market meltdown, but new issuance dropped sharply during the third quarter. A total of $33.16 billion of commercial MBS – including agency MBS backed by multifamily mortgages – were issued during the third quarter of 2013, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals. That was down 24.5 percent from the second quarter, but it brought year-to-date issuance to $123.89 billion, just shy of the total securitized in all of 2012. Commercial mortgage securitization through the first nine months of 2013 was...[Includes one data chart]