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 ...

Social Finance is originating $70 million per month in jumbo mortgages and is considering issuing a jumbo mortgage-backed security, according to industry participants that have met with officials at the marketplace lender. Adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for approximately 25.0 percent of jumbo originations in May, according to Black Knight Financial Services. The firm said the jumbo ARM share of originations has declined from 29.0 percent as recently as ... [Includes five briefs]

Issuers considering including a deal agent in new non-agency MBS will have to look to investors to pay up for the feature as there won’t be much of a rating benefit, according to Fitch Ratings. Some investors have been pushing for a deal agent that would have oversight of various participants in the transaction along with a fiduciary duty to investors. Broad outlines for deal agent responsibilities have been established, but details regarding compensation remain uncertain. Some issuers, including Redwood Trust, have indicated...

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...

The concerns among participants in the jumbo MBS market regarding the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule might have been much ado about nothing. A new report from Moody’s Investors Service suggests that TRID violations won’t materially increase losses in jumbo MBS. The rating service said third-party due diligence reviews will identify loans in violation of TRID, and lenders and aggregators will be able to cure many TRID violations before the mortgages are placed in jumbo MBS. Three jumbo MBS have included...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw significant increases in the flow of both refinance loans and purchase-money mortgages during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. And for the first time in a long while, nonbank mortgage companies delivered over half of the single-family mortgages securitized by the two government-sponsored enterprises. Fannie and Freddie securitized...[Includes three data tables]

New issuance of U.S. residential MBS and non-mortgage ABS revved up significantly in the second quarter, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals. Based on the best available data, a total of $400.72 billion of new MBS and ABS were issued during the three-month period that ended June 30. That figure could edge slightly higher as more information about end-of-month activity becomes available. Second-quarter MBS and ABS issuance was...[Includes one data table]

Fitch Ratings published updated criteria this week for rating residential MBS. The new criteria include adjustments to due diligence grades relating to the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act disclosure rule and evaluations of firms serving as a deal agent. Fitch said the new criteria include a “realignment” of items that prompt C grades and D grades on mortgages reviewed by third-party due diligence firms. The changes incorporate the Structured Finance Industry Group’s recently issued RMBS 3.0 TRID Compliance Review. The rating service acknowledged...

The issuance of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities in 2016 is well below the relatively meager levels seen in recent years, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Some industry participants have blamed the lack of activity on the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act disclosure rule that took effect in October. Although there are signs the market has adjusted to TRID, only two ... [Includes one data chart]

The nonprime mortgage-backed security issued last week by Lone Star Funds could spur an increase in MBS backed by non-qualified mortgages, industry analysts say. The $161.71 million COLT 2016-1 Mortgage Loan Trust was the first MBS backed by non-QMs to receive a rating. Some 51.8 percent of the mortgages in the deal were non-QMs. All of the mortgages were originated by Lone Star’s Caliber Home Loans. The A-1 tranche of the MBS priced at spread of ...