“This was really gnarly and political,” said Redwood executive Marty Hughes. “I think the FHFA making this decision was just something that they wanted to get behind them.”
A handful of recent and current U.S., European and international regulatory efforts “pose a serious threat to securitization as a critical source of funding for the real economy,” especially when taken together, a top securitization official told lawmakers in Washington, DC, this week. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, Richard Johns, executive director of the Structured Finance Industry Group, took on a handful of the industry’s most problematic regulatory initiatives. Among them were the liquidity ratio rules that U.S. regulators implemented in late 2014, and the new Basel III capital rules that were adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He also addressed...
It’s no secret that the secondary market for TRID “scratch-and-dent” loans has blossomed the past few weeks – albeit at niche levels – but dealmakers are now trying to figure out how much longer it can last and whether more buyers will step up. To date, Mid America Mortgage Corp., Addison, TX, appears to be the predominant purchaser of the product, which is being offered by at least three firms: Mortgage Delivery Specialists, Rincon Loan Trading and Spurs Capital. Jeffrey Bode, president, CEO and owner of Mid America, told...
The subprime servicing sector is a shell of its former self, with the dollar volume of loans outstanding declining by 75.8 percent in the past nine years, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Loans originated during the subprime boom continue to pay off or go through foreclosure while new originations have been few and far between. An estimated $300.0 billion in subprime servicing was ... [Includes one data chart]
Many issuers of jumbo mortgage-backed securities appear to have pulled back from the market due to weak demand from investors. Thus far in 2016, only two jumbo MBS have been issued. At the same point in 2015, eight jumbo deals had been issued. Hatteras Financial issued its first jumbo MBS in December. Last week, officials said the real estate investment trust will reduce its capital allocation to jumbo securitization business this year. “Until the yield curve steepens and ...
Ellington Financial is increasing its investments in non-qualified mortgages as officials at the nonbank expect strong profits from the loans. Ellington held $9.2 million in non-QMs at the end of 2015, up from $3.5 million at the end of the third quarter. The nonbank started financing purchases of non-QMs under a facility with an unidentified “large investment bank” in January. “While it took a little longer than I had hoped to get here, the non-QM pipeline will have a meaningful ...
Determining a borrower’s ability to repay a bank-statement mortgage is more complicated than evaluating a borrower underwritten with full income documentation, according to a recent report by Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service noted that originations of bank-statement loans tend to be non-qualified mortgages for self-employed borrowers. “The quality of loans originated through bank-statement income documentation programs depends heavily on ...
Major servicers participating in the non-agency portion of the Home Affordable Modification Program have improperly ended mods for a number of borrowers, according to data from the Treasury Department. The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program is urging the Treasury to take actions to prevent servicers from terminating mods that meet HAMP guidelines. “Treasury’s findings in its on-site visits to the largest seven mortgage servicers in HAMP over ...