A steep drop in VA-backed securities issuance in the first quarter of 2017 suggests that Ginnie Mae’s efforts to curb serial refinancing of VA loans are working, according to agency officials. Speaking on a panel at the annual VA Lenders Conference in Kansas City, MO, this week, Ginnie executives said that a change in pooling requirements for streamlined refinance mortgages appears to have curbed a destructive appetite for refinancing new VA loans within six months of closing. The practice has caused faster prepayments in Ginnie mortgage-backed securities pools and smaller payouts to investors. VA refi volume fell 42.7 percent from the previous quarter (see chart on page 2), contributing significantly to the 32.2 percent decline in total VA loan securitization during the period. John Getchis, senior vice president at Ginnie Mae, said he does not think the churning trend will continue because the ...

When it comes to selling Ginnie Mae mortgage servicing rights the past two years, it’s been mostly a bear market, but all that may be changing soon. At least that is what sellers and their merger and acquisition advisors hope. Mark Garland, executive vice president of MountainView Financial Solutions, Denver, said that of late, “We have seen a few Ginnie trades go off at a level closer to full value.” Garland told Inside FHA/VA Lending that he expects this trend to continue with prices tightening over the summer “provided rates hold and [prepayment] speeds stay largely in line with expectations.” And if that happens, there could be an increase in the ability of FHA/VA lenders to securitize excess cash flows. But that’s getting a little ahead of the equation. Over the past 24 months, the Ginnie MSR market has been difficult for two reasons: the fear of lawsuits/sanctions tied to FHA lending, and fast ...

The Trump White House has yet to fill key positions at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and agencies that fall under the HUD umbrella, including the FHA and Ginnie Mae. According to industry officials who claim to have some knowledge of the process, the administration is seriously considering Pam Patenaude to be the deputy HUD secretary. Patenaude is president of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families. She served as HUD assistant secretary for community, planning and development during the George W. Bush administration. Meanwhile, Michael Bright has been mentioned as a candidate to be the next president of Ginnie Mae. Bright currently serves as director, Center for Financial Markets at the Milken Institute. During his career he has worked for mortgage lender/servicer PennyMac, investment banking firm BlackRock and ...

As first quarters go, the start to 2017 was relatively strong, but total issuance was down sharply from the previous period, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking reveals. The market produced a total of $394.08 billion of residential MBS and non-mortgage ABS during the first three months of 2017, an 18.5 percent decline from the fourth quarter of last year. Production, however, was up 23.7 percent from the same period a year ago, and it was the strongest start since the first quarter of 2013, when agency mortgage refinance activity was running white-hot. In 2017, the agency MBS sector is...[Includes three data tables]

For years, officials at the Federal Reserve seemed nonchalant about coming up with a final exit strategy for the U.S. central bank’s massive holdings of agency MBS and debt and Treasury Securities, currently valued at approximately $4.5 trillion. But now, in relatively short order, the prospect of the Fed beginning to reduce its holdings has become a “thing” – so much so, in fact, that officials there reportedly are starting to put together just such a plan. The likelihood of such a move suddenly got much stronger when the Commerce Department announced late last week that the personal-consumption expenditures price index rose 2.1 percent from a year ago. The Fed has been striving to achieve 2 percent inflation for at least the last five years, and now appears to have the green light it has been waiting for. According to various press reports, the Fed’s plan would entail...

Golden State Tobacco Securitization Corp. is preparing to issue a $618.8 million ABS backed by revenues from a tobacco settlement reached in 1998. Several states have issued such deals, though the sector received a blow last year when Fitch withdrew its ratings and criteria for tobacco ABS. Under the settlement with 46 states and Washington, DC, the major cigarette manufacturing companies must make payments to each state annually, in perpetuity. The payments are based on cigarette sales, among other factors. At the time of the settlement, the revenues for states were estimated to be $306.0 billion for the first 25 years of the agreement. States can issue...

Wells Fargo’s legal woes are continuing after a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week ordered the company to face several lawsuits by institutional investors alleging MBS fraud. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that Wells Fargo must face five lawsuits by a few dozen funds that are holding the bank liable for losses incurred after the MBS they purchased lost value due to the financial crisis. The plaintiffs include...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw substantial declines in new single-family business during the first quarter of 2017, but the purchase-mortgage side showed some life in March, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises guaranteed $218.22 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first three months of the year. That was down 27.1 percent from the fourth quarter total of $299.25 billion – the biggest quarterly flow in GSE business since the second quarter of 2013. The refinance market was...[Includes three data tables]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executed various forms of credit-risk transfers last year that covered $548.0 billion of mortgages, a 30.4 percent increase over the amount covered by CRT activity in the previous year, according to a new report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The performance met the “scorecard” targets issued by their regulator. In total, the two government-sponsored enterprises transferred $17.9 billion of risk in 2016, most of it through their debt note programs. Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities and Freddie’s Structured Agency Credit Risk programs accounted for 72.1 percent of risk transferred last year, the FHFA said. Reinsurance, the next biggest category, accounted...[Includes one data table]

Investors in Taiwan held $208.1 billion of agency MBS, non-agency MBS and ABS at the midway point of 2016, making it the largest overseas investor in the market, according to preliminary Treasury Department data. Taiwan increased its holdings of U.S. MBS and ABS by 9.6 percent from the midway point in 2015, a time period during which overall foreign investment was flat. Treasury releases annual estimates of U.S. MBS and ABS by individual foreign countries as of the middle of each year. The estimates include both government-related and private-sector investors domiciled in the country. Mainland China had been...[Includes one data table]