DBRS was the most active rating service in the non-agency MBS market during the first six months of 2018, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. DBRS rated 26 non-agency MBS totaling $14.08 billion during the first half of the year, which represented 43.5 percent of total issuance. Its market share was up 4.0 percentage points from 2017. Fitch Ratings grew its market share in rating non-agency MBS, which rose from 31.0 percent last year to ... [Includes two data charts]

Increased competition in the non-qualified mortgage market could reduce interest rates paid by borrowers and slow the sector’s speedy prepayment rates, said S&P Global Ratings. Non-QM loans, the fastest growing segment of the residential MBS market, repay quickly, often within one year of origination. S&P noted the conditional prepayment rate of non-QM loans is about 35 percent, while the rate for non-agency prime jumbos ranges from 5 percent to 15 percent. “The predominant reason to ...

Wells Fargo plans to test the market for jumbo MBS issuance within the next year, according to John Shrewsberry, a senior executive vice president and chief financial officer at the bank.

Wells Fargo is getting closer to returning to the jumbo mortgage-backed security market, according to John Shrewsberry, a senior executive vice president and chief financial officer at the bank. “We will be securitizing some of our jumbo loans, which has been a dormant market for a long time, but just as a method of demonstrating liquidity and getting market pricing,” he said last week at a conference hosted by Barclays. Wells has been plotting a return to the non-agency MBS market for ...

Deephaven Mortgage is preparing to issue its largest nonprime mortgage-backed security to date, according to presale reports published this week. The planned $326.1 million Deephaven Residential Mortgage Trust 2018-3 will top a $308.2 million deal the firm issued in January. Mortgages in the new deal look similar to previous issuance from Deephaven. The loans have a weighted-average credit score of 700, an average combined loan-to-value ratio of 72.7 percent and an average ...

Issuance of expanded-credit mortgage-backed securities is moving at a steady pace, but deal sizes are declining and loan seasoning is increasing, suggesting a slowdown in originations. Redwood Trust is set to issue a $362.7 million deal, according to presale reports by Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service. It’s the fourth expanded-credit MBS of the year from Redwood, including a $520.5 million issuance in May and a $417.0 million deal in July. The average seasoning ...

Chimera Investment is preparing to issue a non-agency mortgage-backed security in which all the loans are eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. The deal is backed solely by mortgages on investment properties, according to presale reports by DBRS and Moody’s Investors Service. The deal follows a similar issuance in May by Flagstar Bank as industry analysts suggest that non-agency MBS offer issuers better execution than delivering some types of ...

JPMorgan Chase is changing the servicing-fee structure in its latest prime non-agency mortgage-backed security. Many of the loans will be subject to a variable servicing fee as opposed to the flat fee traditionally used by Chase and many other issuers. Some 80.1 percent of the unpaid principal balance of the planned $513.9 million issuance is subject to the variable fee, a structure that is more commonly seen on MBS backed by nonperforming mortgages. The servicing fee will ...

Non-agency MBS participants are developing a representation-and-warranty framework by learning from ongoing issues in pre-crisis non-agency MBS. The latest framework developed by the law firm of Alston & Bird features a number of new provisions to help address conflicts regarding breaches of reps and warrants.

Flagstar Bank looks to have found an agreeable due diligence sampling rate for loans in its prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The company is preparing to issue a $476.1 million prime non-agency MBS, according to presale reports published last week. It’s the second issuance in a row from Flagstar where 30.0 percent of the loans were subject to third-party reviews. Only 20.0 percent of the loans in a $704.1 million deal Flagstar issued in April were subject to ...