The Federal Reserve this week released the minutes of the July meeting of its Open Market Committee, providing more detail and color regarding the central bank’s deliberations on shrinking its enormous holdings of agency MBS and the future path and timing of interest rate adjustments. FOMC members started their portfolio deliberations by discussing the appropriate time to start reducing the Fed’s securities holdings, a plan that had been formally announced in June. “Participants generally agreed that, in light of their current assessment of economic conditions and the outlook, it was appropriate to signal that implementation of the program likely would begin relatively soon, absent significant adverse developments in the economy or in financial markets,” according to the minutes. Many members of the committee noted...

Simplifying and aligning the default servicing policies of the conventional conforming and the government-backed mortgage markets would better serve the mortgage industry and homeowners, according to industry experts. In a recent discussion on how regulatory burden and high servicing costs might impede lending, members of the Mortgage Servicing Collaborative agreed on the need for streamlined and harmonized federal, state and agency policies and rules on servicing. Increased regulatory requirements have caused mortgage-servicing costs to skyrocket in recent years, experts said. Even though the quality of servicing has improved, the new regulations are complex and costly, they noted. Multiple pressures placed upon servicers have suppressed mortgage lending, making it harder for borrowers with tainted credit to obtain a mortgage, according to the ...

Ginnie Mae will not have an annual summit this year but has rescheduled it for January 2018, according to Ginnie Mae’s new spokesperson. Michael Huff, senior advisor, congressional and stakeholder relations, said a new administration and staff departures have caused organizers to reconsider having the annual Ginnie Mae Summit this year, usually held in October. The Trump administration has yet to announce a nominee for the top job at Ginnie Mae since former president Ted Tozer left in January. David Kittle is reportedly a leading contender, but there has been no official announcement or confirmation. So far, Kittle has declined to comment. Kittle is a mortgage industry veteran who began as a loan officer and now heads his own company. He also was a top executive with the Mortgage Bankers Association and managed, among other things, the group’s political action committee. In addition, Kittle co-founded the ...

Ginnie Mae’s Fiscal YTD MBS Issuances Surpass $400 Billion. A modest volume increase in monthly securitizations in July pushed Ginnie Mae’s FY 2017 overall volume past $400 billion. Ginnie reported that $1.86 trillion of its mortgage-backed securities were outstanding as of July 1, up from $1.84 trillion in June and from $1.70 trillion from the same date last year. Last month, mortgage lenders pumped a hefty $112.4 billion of single-family home loans into the MBS platforms of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Circuit Courts Split on DOL Overtime Rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that mortgage underwriters are not “administrative employees” and, therefore, not exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s ruling in McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Savings Bank overturned a ...

Mortgage origination volume was up substantially in all product categories during the second quarter, but the government-insured market posted the biggest gain, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Mortgage lenders produced an estimated $125.0 billion of government-insured home loans during the second quarter, up 19.0 percent from the first three months of the year. That nudged the government-insured share of the market up to 27.5 percent, the highest it’s been since early 2010. In the immediate aftermath of the housing-market meltdown, jumbo and nonprime production was depressed significantly, boosting the shares of government and conventional-conforming production. FHA and VA production typically gains...[Includes two data tables]

A California nonbank is in the market with an excess servicing deal tied to an $11 billion Ginnie Mae portfolio, according to investment bankers familiar with the auction process. Sources contend the sale is being managed in part by Andrew Platt, a former managing director at MountainView Capital Group, Denver, a firm that’s an active broker of servicing rights. Platt now serves as vice chairman of Sprout Mortgage, a nonprime lender based in Henderson, NV. The deal is...

Members of Congress have left Washington, DC, for their summer recess, and mortgage industry representatives are using the time to plan strategy and educate lawmakers on key issues to help propel a number of measures across the finish line before the year ends. The most time-sensitive issues are reauthorizing the national flood insurance program and setting budgets for FHA and Ginnie Mae activity in fiscal 2018, which begins Oct. 1, 2017. Lawmakers will be looking to deal with these in September. Authority for the National Flood Insurance Program expires...

The surprise tactic by Wells Fargo to withhold millions of dollars from investors in vintage non-agency MBS spurred Redwood Trust officials to try to protect the reputation of jumbo MBS. “We’re frustrated, not just for us, but for other market participants,” Christopher Abate, Redwood’s president and CFO, said late last week during the real estate investment trust’s earnings call. “For now, we’ll just have to continue updating and educating new-issue investors, and I hope for a quick resolution to this legacy litigation issue.” As of the end of June, Wells Fargo had withheld...

Investors in certain residential MBS transactions backed by defaulted mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis are a step closer to being made whole, more than four years after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settlement with JPMorgan Securities, Bear Stearns and some affiliates over allegations they misled investors and mishandled bulk settlement proceeds. The case involved is Securities and Exchange Commission v. J. P. Morgan Securities LLC, EMC Mortgage, LLC, Bear Stearns Asset Backed Securities I, LLC, Structured Asset Mortgage Investments II, Inc., SACO I, Inc., and J. P. Morgan Acceptance Corporation I, Case No. 12-CV-1862 (RLW). In November 2012, the SEC filed...

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its housing-finance reform proposal would likely have little impact on consumer mortgage costs. Whether costs to consumers are modestly higher or lower will depend on how the different components suggested for reform are determined through the political process, according to the MBA. “While the precise impact on consumer costs from true housing-finance reform may be difficult to gauge, we know...