Issuers of non-agency commercial MBS responded to risk-retention requirements by tightening underwriting standards and passing costs onto borrowers, according to an analysis by Craig Furfine, a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Issuance of prime jumbo mortgage-backed securities is on the rise but underwriting standards for loans in the deals aren’t changing much, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Some $4.23 billion of prime jumbo MBS was issued in the first quarter of 2018, the highest quarterly volume for the sector since the first three months of 2015. Issuers in the sector have largely maintained super-prime underwriting standards since the financial crisis ... [Includes two data charts]

Chimera Investment, JPMorgan Chase and Redwood Trust plan to issue new prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities in the coming weeks, adding to momentum in a market where most issuers are optimistic about production volume. The planned CIM Trust 2018-J1 would mark a return to the jumbo MBS market for Chimera. The real estate investment trust has focused its issuance efforts on seasoned mortgages in recent years after dabbling in jumbo MBS around 2012 ...

Full third-party due diligence reviews were completed on only 20.0 percent of the loans being pooled by Flagstar Bank into a new non-agency mortgage-backed security. Rating services delivered mixed assessments of the due diligence sampling rate, which could set a standard for the market. The $704.1 million Flagstar Mortgage Trust 2018-2 is scheduled to close at the end of the month. DBRS, Fitch Ratings, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service all ...

SG Capital Partners is set to issue its first rated nonprime mortgage-backed security after bringing to market some unrated deals in recent years and aggregating loans in a rated nonprime MBS issued by a competitor. Morningstar Credit Ratings and S&P Global Ratings assigned preliminary AAA ratings to the planned $140.1 million SG Residential Mortgage Trust 2018-1 last week. Somewhat unusually, the rating services came up with different figures on the share of non-qualified mortgages ...

An affiliate of Invictus Capital Partners is set to issue a unique non-agency mortgage-backed security backed by loans on investor properties that differs from the structure of typical single-family rental deals. Invictus’s Verus Mortgage Capital predominantly focuses on non-qualified mortgages and has issued deals backed by non-QMs along with a sprinkling of mortgages on investment properties. Many other nonprime MBS issuers have brought similar deals. The planned $258.4 million ...

Redwood Trust is set to issue a “bespoke” prime non-agency mortgage-backed security. The deal largely looks like other MBS from Redwood, but a spokesperson for the real estate investment trust said the MBS was tailored for one investor. Kroll Bond Rating Agency placed preliminary ratings on the planned $338.7 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2018-4 last week. The deal is scheduled to close on April 20. There are only minor differences between the MBS and three other ...

The non-agency MBS market is starting to look more like it did before the financial collapse of 2008, although still a much slimmer version of its former self. [Includes three data charts.]

With relatively strong demand from investors for prime non-agency MBS, issuers are starting to break the mold that was established after the financial crisis. Areas of experimentation include due diligence sampling, an emphasis on loans eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises and specifically tailored transactions.

Certain types of MBS and ABS appear to have some wiggle room regarding risk-retention requirements. According to industry lawyers, many single-asset/single-borrower (SASB) commercial MBS can be structured to avoid risk retention and the rules might not apply to certain esoteric ABS.