An increase in short-term interest rates will have an outsized impact on commercial MBS among structured finance assets, according to Moody’s Investors Service. In a report released last week, the rating service said higher interest rates will be credit negative for existing deal performance and new issuance for commercial MBS and largely neutral for residential MBS and most ABS sectors. As interest rates rise, Moody’s said term default risk on loans backing new issue commercial MBS will increase because the loans’ debt service coverage ratios will be lower than the DSCRs at the time of origination of loans in outstanding deals. “Rates on loans backing new conduit deals will increase, thereby reducing DSCR in relation to a given property’s cash flow,” the rating service said. “New conduit deals are typically backed by loan pools that were originated no more than ...

Clean-up calls executed by U.S. Bank on Ginnie Mae real estate mortgage investment conduits in recent years have caused problems for some investors, but industry analysts suggest that overall, the risk agency MBS investors face from clean-up calls is limited. Analysts at Performance Trust Capital Partners, an investing firm, warned recently that U.S. Bank has made about $53 million in profit the past three years by completing clean-up calls on Ginnie REMICs where the bank was the trustee. On Ginnie REMICs, trustees are allowed to complete clean-up calls when the outstanding balance on the security falls to less than 1.0 percent of the aggregate of the original class principal balance for the security. When executing a clean-up call, the trustee pays off the investors in the MBS at par. On Ginnie deals where U.S. Bank has completed clean-up calls, the REMICs have generally been trading at ...

Single-family rental securitizations appear to be performing well, according to analysts at Morningstar Credit Ratings, with few signs of trouble on the horizon. “Vacancy rates generally remain low, cash flows remain sufficient to cover bond obligations, and … the recently released May property-level data for the single-borrower, single-family rental asset class shows performance in line with its recent history,” the rating service said in a new report. Overall, monthly retention rates remain in the mid-70s to low-80s. Also, “delinquency rates are slightly higher from their April levels but remain mostly low.” Lease expirations are generally rising across SFR securitizations, Morningstar said, but vacancy rates have remained relatively flat month-over-month. “Although delinquency rates rose slightly across most transactions, the number of tenants past due on their payments remains low,” the analysts said. Elsewhere, so far, ...

Ginnie Mae securitized $6.6 billion of VA jumbo loans in the first three months of 2015, up 15.9 percent from the prior quarter, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of Ginnie Mae data.Jumbo loans – single-family mortgages with loan amounts exceeding $417,000 – comprised 18.7 percent of total VA originations in the first quarter. VA jumbo originations outpaced FHA jumbo production, which totaled $2.8 billion in the first quarter, up 17.0 percent from the prior quarter, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance database. VA jumbos in Ginnie mortgage-backed securities issued in the first quarter included modified VA loans as well as those originated in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wells Fargo ranked first among securitizers of VA jumbos in the first quarter, with $1.3 billion in production. Second-ranked Freedom Mortgage conveyed $652.7 million in ... [ 1 chart ]

While the characteristics of loans included in jumbo mortgage-backed securities continue to be strong overall, industry analysts note that there are significant differences in “soft” underwriting guidelines used by lenders. “Not all underwriting guidelines, and exceptions to guidelines, are created equal,” analysts at Morningstar Credit Ratings cautioned in a recent report. “Some originators recently have introduced programs that make qualifying for financing easier and require less income documentation.” The company, which is making a new push to rate jumbo MBS, reviewed the guidelines of a number of the most active jumbo originators and aggregators ...

A new feature Redwood Trust has included in its two most recent jumbo mortgage-backed securities has prompted support from AAA investors along with mixed reactions from rating services. The $356.45 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2015-2 issued in April and the $343.21 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2015-3 that was issued this week included a unique stop-advance feature. Servicers of the loans won’t be allowed to provide advances of principal and interest on loans that are 120+ days delinquent. The jumbo MBS were rated by Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service ...

$4.3 billion in rural housing loans with a U.S. Department of Agriculture guaranty were securitized during the first quarter of 2015, down 24.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014. Nearly all of the 10 leading USDA securitizers saw their issuances drop by more than 10 percent quarter over quarter, according to Inside FHA/VA Lending’s analysis of Ginnie Mae data. Stearns Lending reported the largest quarter and yearly declines in the volume of USDA loans securitized by Ginnie, 45.7 percent and 39.1 percent, respectively. On the other hand, the volume of securitized USDA loans rose 2.7 percent year over year. The top USDA loan securitizers, Chase Home Finance and Wells Fargo, led the market with a combined 45.9 percent market share. Chase funneled $1.3 billion in USDA-backed loans into Ginnie mortgage-backed securities while Wells Fargo delivered $621.0 million for securitization. Third-ranked PennyMac closed the quarter with $291.7 million in securitized USDA mortgage loans ... [ 1 chart ]

The frequently-asked-questions guidance to using the FHA’s consolidated Single Family Policy Handbook is good to have though it shows just how complicated the FHA’s mortgage origination process is, according to lenders. In fact, the updated FHA handbook could still be confusing to borrowers simply because a lot more information is concentrated in one source, lenders said. According to the FHA, the more than 290 FAQs will enable lenders to make operation adjustments before the handbook goes into effect on Sept. 14, 2015. The FAQs are for information purposes only and do not apply to current FHA policies. They do not establish or modify policy contained in the handbook. The FAQs reiterate information in the handbook under headings such as Credit Underwriting, Closing and Insuring, FHA System Support and Consumer Information. Industry observers noted that the FAQs did not ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau boosted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business by some $132.9 billion when it gave the two government-sponsored enterprises a free pass on the debt-to-income ratio requirements of the qualified-mortgage rule. For the non-agency world, a qualified mortgage has to have a DTI ratio of 43 percent or less. While the government-insured market has its own QM rules that effectively ignore DTI, a loan eligible for sale to the GSEs is considered a qualified mortgage if it meets all the QM criteria – such as no interest-only payments – other than the DTI cap. From the beginning of 2014 through the end of the first quarter of this year, about 16.3 percent of the loans securitized by Fannie and Freddie had...[Includes two data tables]

There was widespread expectation that the latest round of seller-friendly changes to the government-sponsored enterprises’ representation-and-warranty framework would encourage lenders to liberalize their credit overlays. So far in 2015, the data aren’t showing it. In fact, the case could be made that credit trends are going the other way. The average credit score for purchase mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was...[Includes one data table]