The uniformity once seen across rating services in their assessments of specific tranches of residential MBS has become a lot less common in recent years. The trend prompted Fitch Ratings to raise concerns about “rating inflation,” as competitors have at times been more lenient in their assessments.

Coworking is playing a more significant role in commercial real estate, posing new challenges to underwriting and valuation standards for the commercial MBS, rating services said.

A report from a Standard & Poor’s structured finance team says several collateralized loan obligation transactions rated between 1994 and 2009 are about to close with minimal defaults while a re-port from Moody’s Investors Service warns that apparently harmless provisions of CLOs can actually increase risks to investors. It has been nearly a decade since the last CLO 1.0 deal was issued, and the last of these transactions are nearing the end of their lives, according to ...

Moves by three issuers of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities to allow for third-party due diligence reviews to be completed on fewer than 100 percent of the loans in an MBS could increase the risk of losses for MBS investors, according to Moody’s Investors Service. In a report released this week, Moody’s said narrower due diligence reviews increase the likelihood of defective loans appearing in non-agency MBS. The rating service added that representations ... [Includes five briefs]

A handful of issuers of non-agency mortgage-backed securities not rated by Fitch Ratings were called out in a report by the rating service regarding representations and warranties. The report released at the end of June detailed how reps, warrants and enforcement provisions for various issuers compare with a “full” rep-and-warrant framework established by Fitch. The rating service includes an assessment of reps and warrants for all of the non-agency MBS the firm rates but the report also ...

The spring homebuying season fueled a relatively modest increase in production of Ginnie Mae single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis. Lenders issued $98.66 billion of Ginnie MBS backed by forward mortgages during the April-May cycle. That was up 6.6 percent from the first three months of the year, but 2018 continued to lag behind the pace set in 2017 by 10.7 percent. Given current trends, annual Ginnie MBS issuance in 2018 could fall short of the $400 billion mark for the first time since 2014. The flow of FHA and VA purchase mortgages was up a solid 23.7 percent from the first to the second quarter, bringing the total for the first half of the year to $121.01 billion. However, that was down 4.7 percent from the same period in 2017. Ginnie securitized $75.02 billion of FHA purchase loans in the ... [Charts]

DBRS maintained its lead position as the top rating service in the non-agency MBS market during the first quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking. [Includes two data charts.]

Ginnie Mae has added a new metric to make it easier for approved issuers to track the prepayment rates of single-family loans underlying they have delivered into mortgage-backed securities. The new prepayment metric would enhance Ginnie’s Issuer Operational Performance Profile (IOPP) tool, which was launched in 2015 to help issuers measure their performance against the agency’s standards. The new tool is the latest move by Ginnie to ensure the integrity and market predictability of Ginnie MBS. The prepayment tool will be available to lenders beginning June 25. The announcement follows an agency administrative action last week against three VA lenders that were penalized for cherry picking and refinancing unseasoned VA loans not to benefit borrowers but to charge them higher fees. The lenders – Freedom Mortgage, SunWest Mortgage Co. and NewDay USA – were among nine issuers that ...

The latest prime non-agency mortgage-backed security from Flagstar Bank will differ somewhat from two similar deals issued by the bank this year, according to presale reports released this week. The share of mortgages subject to due diligence was adjusted and there will be a higher share of mortgages in the deal that are eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. The pending $466.93 million Flagstar Mortgage Trust 2018-4 follows deals from the bank that closed in ...

Reverse mortgage lenders started out strong in the first three month of 2018 with a 19.2 percent increase in Home Equity Conversion Mortgage production from the previous period. HECM endorsements totaled $5.4 billion in the first quarter, with purchase reverse loans accounting for the bulk of originations, 81.9 percent. First quarter production was up 18.5 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, HECM mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $2.97 billion for the quarter, down from $3.25 billion in the prior quarter, Ginnie Mae data showed. The top five HECM originators in sequential order – American Advisors Group, Reverse Mortgage Funding, One Reverse Mortgage, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, and Synergy One Lending – accounted for $1.66 billion, or 30.8 percent, of total production during the first quarter. American Advisors maintained its top ranking with $841.4 million of HECM loans, which ... [Charts]