The Association of Mortgage Investors wrote to the CFPB last week for guidance on the integrated disclosure rule known as TRID, warning that the marketplace woes stemming from the new rule may extend to the conforming mortgage loan market. “The recent evidence is that the rule, while extremely well-intentioned, has resulted in a climate of legal uncertainty and is chilling private investment in the U.S. mortgage market,” said Chris Katopis, executive director of the AMI. Further, “We urge the bureau to open a new public comment period to address the concerns of mortgage investors,” he added. “We seek formal written guidance clarifying the liability for a violation of each individual TRID requirement, as well as the scope and applicability of ...

A single mortgage would have to meet nearly 150 requirements to achieve compliance with the TRID integrated disclosure rule, according to a framework proposed last week by members of the Structured Finance Industry Group. Third-party due diligence firms will test loans for most of the rule’s requirements, according to a draft of the TRID compliance “review scope” obtained by Inside Nonconforming Markets, an affiliated publication. Since the integrated disclosure rule took effect in October, due diligence firms have found widespread violations on non-agency mortgages, limiting sales of loans with violations due to liability concerns. The SFIG proposal suggests that many of the TRID compliance violations could be cured after being uncovered by a due diligence firm, but violations of about ...

Due diligence firms led an effort to issue a draft proposal late last week that would establish a standardized approach for reviewing compliance with the TRID mortgage-disclosure rule. The effort organized by the Structured Finance Industry Group was met with praise by industry participants. “The draft proposal represents a significant step forward for developing an industry standard treatment of errors related to the new residential mortgage disclosure requirements,” Fitch Ratings said. TRID is industry shorthand for a new integrated disclosure rule that covers requirements under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Third-party due diligence providers have identified...

The new refinance program being developed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers with high loan-to-value ratios will not be available for homeowners who have already used the Home Affordable Refinance Program, according to the regulator of the two government-sponsored enterprises. The Federal Housing Finance Agency this year directed Fannie and Freddie to develop a replacement program for HARP, which will sunset at the end of 2016. MBS investors have been concerned...[Includes one data table]

Payments were improperly allocated among tranches of a $644.12 million non-agency MBS issued in November 2014 for about a year before being addressed, according to the firms that placed ratings on the deal. RPMLT 2014-1 Trust was issued by Credit Suisse’s DLJ Mortgage Capital and backed by re-performing mortgages. The payment problems appear to be tied to improper reporting by Rushmore Loan Management Services, the servicer of the MBS, and Wells Fargo Bank, the securities administrator for the deal. Fitch Ratings said...

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS climbed to $201.4 billion in February, the best reading in nine months and a sign that investors will still flock to government-backed products in times of uncertainty, especially extreme uncertainty. Late this week, market watchers expressed their concerns about the terrorist bombings in Belgium as well as continued worries about China’s slowing economy and sagging oil prices. In short order, they piled into MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. Barry Habib, who runs MBS Highway, a rate-lock service, told...

Proposed standards drafted by due diligence providers for how to handle TRID mortgage disclosure issues could be finalized as soon as next week, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group. TRID compliance violations uncovered by third-party due diligence firms are seen as a major contributor to the slowdown in non-agency mortgage-backed security issuance since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s TRID rule took effect in October. And some have suggested ...

Issuance in the jumbo mortgage-backed securities market has nearly stopped in the first quarter of 2016, but not all issuers are ready to abandon the sector. “The securitization market has been slow to re-open but there’s a lot of optionality to that business to the extent that the banks’ lust for mortgages on their balance sheets changes in different interest rate environments,” said William Roth, CIO of Two Harbors Investment. “The ability for us to grow that business dramatically is there ...

Ginnie Mae securitization of jumbo mortgage loans with a VA guaranty rose significantly in 2015 despite a volume drop-off in the fourth quarter, according to Inside FHA/VA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Year-over-year results saw an almost 60 percent increase in Ginnie Mae mortgage securitization backed by VA jumbo loans. This was slightly dampened by 17.1 percent drop in VA MBS production in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter. All top-five VA jumbo securitizers – Wells Fargo, Freedom Mortgage Corp., PennyMac Corp., U.S. Bank, and Quicken Loans – reported significant drops quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. Wells Fargo delivered a total of $5.0 billion in VA jumbo loans into Ginnie pools, making it the leading jumbo securitizer in that segment. This accounted for 17.7 percent of the market. Freedom Mortgage ended the year with $2.1 billion in ... [ Charts ]

The supply of home loan debt outstanding grew for a third straight quarter in late 2015, including an ongoing ride higher in un-securitized portfolio mortgages. The Federal Reserve reported that $9.986 trillion of home mortgages were outstanding at the end of last year, a 0.3 percent increase from the third quarter. The growth rate slowed a bit – the market grew by roughly twice that rate from March to September – but the fourth quarter put unpaid home mortgage debt up 1.0 percent from the end of 2014, the first annual increase since 2007. The single fastest-growing segment of the market continued...[Includes two data tables]