Ocwen Financial pushed back this week against claims from large investors that have worked to remove the nonbank as servicer on 119 non-agency MBS. “By all indications, the holders employed unsupportable assumptions and manipulated their analysis to advance their agenda,” Timothy Hayes, an executive vice president and general counsel at Ocwen, wrote in a letter to the trustees of the MBS in question. The letter was a response to claims made ...

Nomura Holdings is unlikely to suffer a hit in ratings because of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s mortgage-backed securities lawsuit, but the litigation may yet prove costly to the Japanese financial holding company, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings. Nomura went to trial on March 16 to defend itself against allegations that it misrepresented the underlying asset quality of MBS it sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to the financial crisis ...

Steady growth in the outstanding supply of agency single-family MBS offset the ongoing decline in non-agency MBS in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Outstanding single-family MBS edged up 0.1 percent from the third quarter to finish the year at $6.357 trillion. Although that was the third straight quarterly gain, the yearend total still came up 0.6 percent short of the total outstanding at the end of 2013 ... [Includes one data chart]

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senate lawmakers this week urged the Federal Housing Finance Agency to move the budding common securitization platform for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “past the duopolistic tendencies of the past.” The FHFA originally directed the two government-sponsored enterprises to develop the CSP so that it would be open to and functional for all residential mortgage securitizers, but the agency last year detoured slightly ... [Includes one data chart]

A number of non-agency MBS investors with mezzanine and subordinate positions in deals serviced by Ocwen Financial support the troubled servicer, according to industry participants. The investors have pushed back against an effort by other investors holding senior tranches to get servicing transferred from Ocwen. “Ocwen is a critically important servicer in private-label residential MBS,” John Devaney, CEO of United Capital Markets, wrote in a recent letter ...

Returns on agency MBS are “uninspiring,” according to Thomas Siering, president and CEO of Two Harbors Investment, which has worked to diversify its assets, including putting an emphasis on jumbo conduit activities and commercial MBS. “We have a diversified business model and our operating platform obviates the need to jack up leverage to generate some return in the agency space because we think we can get attractive returns in ...

WinWater Home Mortgage and Two Harbors Investment are preparing to issue separate jumbo mortgage-backed securities, according to presale reports. WinWater’s deal is set to include some non-qualified mortgages while Two Harbors’ jumbo MBS sticks with the type of mortgages that have dominated jumbo MBS issued in recent years. The $287.74 million WinWater Mortgage Loan Trust 2015-3 is set to receive AAA ratings with credit enhancement of ...

The two main types of representation-and-warranty frameworks used in jumbo mortgage-backed securities can both effectively protect investors, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Each framework presents different risks, and industry participants suggest that other aspects of deals carry more importance for investors. Jumbo MBS issued in recent years have largely included either an open-ended rep-and-warrant framework or a prescriptive framework ...

The outstanding balance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities increased in February on a monthly basis, according to a Standard & Poor’s analysis of remittance data. The increase was a rare occurrence as non-agency MBS outstanding has regularly declined since 2009. Of the more than 20,000 jumbo mortgages Redwood Trust has acquired as part of its jumbo conduit activities since 2010, only 11 have gone 60-plus days delinquent ... [Includes five briefs]

The supply of home mortgage debt outstanding grew for the second consecutive quarter during the final three months of 2014, eking out a slim 0.1 percent gain from the end of September. The Federal Reserve late last week reported that $9.862 trillion of 1-4 family mortgage debt was outstanding at the end of last year. It may not sound like much, but it marked the first time since ... [Includes one data chart]