The share of cash-out mortgages in prime non-agency MBS has increased in recent years, prompting concerns from Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service noted that the cash-out refi share increased from around 1.0 percent in early 2012 to around 8.0 percent in the second half of 2017. The cash-out refi share has been even higher in some recent issuance. Such loans accounted for 14.9 percent of the $736.5 million deal JPMorgan Chase issued this week ...

Redwood Trust entered the single-family rental market this week by purchasing a stake in 5 Arches, a lender and asset manager. The move is part of a diversification strategy for Redwood, with officials at the real estate investment trust expecting growth among renters. Redwood acquired a 20.0 percent interest in 5 Arches with a one-year option to purchase the remaining 80 percent of the company. Redwood paid $10.0 million in cash for the minority stake and can buy the rest of the ...

A sharp increase in recent months in the volume of mortgages eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises being placed in non-agency MBS is exposing investors to higher potential losses than deals backed solely by prime jumbo loans, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency.

Since the start of 2018, two new firms have issued prime non-agency MBS and a third player looks set to rejoin the sector. Issuers expect more competition this year due to relatively strong demand from investors for prime non-agency MBS.

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 ...