As Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters recede, federal agencies that provide guarantees on mortgages are faced with the daunting task of identifying and assisting borrowers with government-backed mortgages in disaster-stricken areas of Texas. FHA, VA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service and Ginnie Mae have issued special relief guidance for approved lenders following Hurricane Harvey. The FHA has issued guidance to remind lenders and servicers that FHA-insured mortgages secured by properties in a presidentially-declared major disaster area are subject to a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures following a natural disaster. FHA also provides lenders an automatic 90-day extension upon expiration of the moratorium to begin or re-start foreclosure action or evaluate the borrower’s need for loss mitigation. In addition, FHA urged servicers to brush up on the 203(h) and the ...

Ginnie Mae Spokesperson Leaves Agency. Cynthia Adcock, director of communications and congressional relations at Ginnie Mae, will no longer be with the agency effective Sept. 4, 2017. Adcock will assume similar duties and responsibilities as a director with the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Michael Huff will handle media inquiries related to Ginnie Mae and congressional matters. FHA Lenders Settle Alleged Violations of FCA, FHA Requirements. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General recently announced receipt of $44.3 million from separate settlements with two FHA lenders. The settlements resolve allegations of fraudulent claims and violation of FHA requirements against Financial Freedom of Austin, TX, and Prospect Mortgage of Sherman, Oaks, CA. On May 16, 2017, Financial Freedom, an FHA servicer, agreed to pay the ...

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $41.95 billion of collateralized mortgage obligations backed by single-family MBS during the second quarter, according to an analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Agency CMO issuance was down 17.2 percent from the first three months of the year, with Freddie taking the biggest hit – a 30.9 percent drop in production. Ginnie had the smallest quarterly decline, 5.1 percent. On a year-to-date basis, all three agencies are...[Includes one data table]

The Structured Finance Industry Group pushed for trustees of non-agency MBS to increase disclosures to investors as the industry continues to deal with the aftermath of Wells Fargo withholding millions of dollars of funds in vintage deals. In a statement released late last week, the industry group said it has a policy of not engaging in issues involving legacy transactions that may be associated with litigation, especially where such litigation is between various members of SFIG. The Wall Street group issued...

Real estate investment trusts that invest in MBS and other mortgage-related assets are having a field day this year, raising billions of dollars in new capital while seeing their share prices increase across the board. Moreover, according to an analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, several top-ranked REITs are now trading much closer to their 52-week highs than their lows while maintaining hefty dividend payments to their shareholders. Annaly Capital Management, for example, the largest holder of agency MBS at $75.2 billion, is...

Fitch Ratings announced last week that non-agency MBS with a unique structure will be eligible to receive AAA ratings. The rating service said deals with a shifting-interest structure are now eligible for the top ratings after previously limiting ratings on such deals to single-A. Both DBRS and S&P Global Ratings have assigned AAA ratings to some MBS backed by re-performing mortgages where the deals had shifting-interest structures. MBS with such structures distribute...

The wholesale-broker market saw a surge in origination volume during the second quarter of 2017, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. All three primary-market production channels recorded big gains in the second quarter, but mortgage brokers posted the biggest increase, a 35.1 percent jump in first-lien mortgage originations to an estimated $50.0 billion. Most of the top wholesale funders in the sector reported similarly big increases in production. One reason the broker share of originations rose in the second quarter was...[Includes four data tables]

Commercial banks and savings institutions continued to stockpile agency MBS during the second quarter of 2017 with a strong appetite for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pass-through securities. Total bank investment in residential MBS rose by $36.28 billion during the second quarter, lifting the industry’s aggregate portfolio to a record $1.799 trillion. Bank MBS holdings have risen steadily since the third quarter of 2014, growing by $264.07 billion over that period. In addition to those held-to-maturity and available-for-sale accounts, about a dozen banks held $16.34 billion of residential MBS in trading accounts. All of the growth has been...[Includes two data tables]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still titans in the residential MBS market when it comes to making new securities, but they have been forced to the sidelines as investors over nine years in conservatorship. The two government-sponsored enterprises held a combined $221.48 billion of residential MBS at the end of June. Firm numbers on the total volume of MBS outstanding at that point aren’t available yet, but it’s unlikely that Fannie and Freddie held more than 3.5 percent of the market. The two GSEs reduced...[Includes one data table]

Tricon American Homes is set to issue the first rated single-family rental securitization to include a voluntary property-substitution provision for the life of the transaction. The provision provides the issuer with flexibility to manage its overall portfolio, but rating services cautioned that the feature could have negative implications for investors. The planned Tricon American Homes 2017-SFR1 is collateralized by a $498.60 million fixed-rate loan secured by mortgages on 3,480 single-family rentals. The deal received preliminary AAA ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Moody’s Investors Service and Morningstar Credit Ratings. KBRA noted...