The secondary market for mortgages with TRID mortgage-disclosure errors has stayed fairly constant the past few months, but there are new signs the business is getting a bit long in the tooth. According to interviews with investors and brokerage firms involved in the scratch-and-dent market, the auction of mortgages with disclosure problems (of all varying degrees) continues, but fewer sales are closing. Mid America Mortgage, Addison, TX, one of the most active buyers in the space, said...

MBS prepayment speeds are likely to climb higher because of falling mortgage interest rates, but industry analysts are undecided about how big a factor borrower burn-out will be. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its refinance loan application index climbed to 2575.9 in the week ending July 1, its highest level since early 2015. The index fell last week to 2295.8. The average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate conventional conforming mortgage fell...

A New Mexico jury handed the Securities and Exchange Commission a split verdict in a 2008 financial crisis-related lawsuit against two senior executives of the now-defunct Thornburg Mortgage who were accused of fraud and misrepresenting the financial condition of the company. The jury found for defendants Larry Goldstone, former Thornburg CEO, and Clarence Simmons, former chief financial officer, on half of the counts but failed to reach a verdict on the most significant charges based on fraud and lying to the company’s outside auditors. In the lawsuit, the SEC alleged...

The costs and benefits of a deal agent will vary based on loan characteristics, according to a new analysis by Fitch Ratings. Costs for jumbo mortgage-backed securities will be relatively low, while costs for nonprime MBS will be higher, along with potentially greater benefits when assessing the representations and warranties on a deal. Non-agency MBS issuers continue to work toward including a deal agent in new transactions as some investors have called for the feature ...

Investors in non-agency mortgage-backed securities serviced by Ocwen Financial released a report this week calling for Standard & Poor’s to upgrade Ocwen’s servicer ratings. In June 2015, S&P downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing’s servicer ratings to “below average,” citing regulatory issues and investor scrutiny along with concerns about internal audits at Ocwen. The downgrade is a focus for some investors because some of the non-agency MBS serviced by Ocwen have ...

Ginnie Mae issuers produced a hefty $125.42 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of MBS data. The government-insured market continued to run hotter than the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sector. Ginnie MBS issuance – including FHA’s home-equity conversion mortgage program – was up 31.1 percent from the first quarter, while single-family MBS issuance by the two government-sponsored enterprises rose 26.2 percent over the same period. Excluding HECM, Ginnie issuance was up 31.5 percent in the second quarter. While FHA forward mortgages continued to be the biggest source of collateral, the VA program actually produced a bigger gain, 42.4 percent, from the first to the second quarter. VA production saw a major boost in refinance activity, up 58.4 ... [Includes four charts ]

Capital requirements that are set to take effect in 2018 for bank holdings of mortgage servicing rights won’t prompt changes to servicing activities or portfolios at most banks, according to a new analysis by federal regulators. The report by four federal banking regulators on the effect of capital rules on MSR assets was prompted by the omnibus spending bill that was signed into law in late 2015. The banking regulators examined a number of MSR trends and determined that the current regulatory course is sufficient. At the start of 2018, capital requirements for banks will get...

Secondary market participants’ reluctance to invest in mortgages out of fear of liability from the loans being originated with TRID errors seems misplaced or overblown, a new report from Moody’s Investors Service suggests. Violations of the CFPB’s integrated-disclosure rule will not notably increase losses in prime jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities, according to a recent analysis by the ratings service.As Moody’s sees it, TRID violations in prime jumbo RMBS will be minimal and often curable. “Prime jumbo RMBS exposure to loans that violate TRID will largely be kept in check thanks to third-party due diligence reviews,” Moody’s said. On top of that, lenders and aggregators will be able to correct most TRID violations before issuers place the affected mortgages in ...

Fitch Ratings recently updated its U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities rating criteria, partly to include adjustments to due diligence grades having to do with the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, otherwise known as TRID. Fitch said it expects that participating third-party due-diligence review firms will determine whether mortgages being reviewed for inclusion in MBS have been closed in compliance with the disclosure rule. Further, the ratings service said it would request that due diligence firms grading loans determine whether the findings are more likely to carry statutory damages and assignee liability or just assignee liability. When it comes to grading TRID loans under the revised criteria, Fitch said unresolved errors that carry an increased ...

Marketplace lender Social Finance is contemplating a securitization of jumbo mortgages, according to industry officials who claim to have knowledge of the firm’s operations. The news comes amid an interesting time for the jumbo loan market: production volumes are generally strong and likely will be boosted even more by the recent decline in interest rates. But even established nonbank players have been avoiding the securitization route, opting instead to sell newly originated jumbos to commercial banks. SoFi, as the privately held company is known, has been placing...