Every buyer has a different definition of "reperforming," but generally the loan must be current for at least 12 months.

Although the FHLB-Chicago will facilitate jumbo purchases with Redwood, any FHLB member across the nation can upstream product to the REIT.

RBS, which is effectively owned by the British government, still faces liability in private label security (PLS) matters tied to Greenwich Capital, a U.S. subsidiary that at one time was the largest nonprime issuer in the nation.

The loans in the deal were largely originated by First Republic Bank and Chase, banks that certainly have the capacity to hold jumbos in portfolio.

Redwood Trust late last week struck a deal with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago to purchase fixed-rate jumbo mortgages from FHLBank members participating in the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program. Redwood will be the sole investor in “high balance” mortgages from the new MPF Direct program for three years. The program is subject to final approval from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Officials at Redwood said the real estate investment trust plans to start investing in MPF Direct loans during the second half of this year. The loan limit for the MPF Direct program is...

Morningstar Credit Ratings late last week published new rating criteria for non-agency MBS. While the firm has been active in the commercial MBS sector, the non-agency MBS rating criteria Morningstar released in 2012 never caught on with issuers. “We have taken a fresh, holistic approach to the residential MBS rating process to help investors gauge the relative default risk of a security against its peers,” said Vickie Tillman, president of Morningstar. Tillman joined the rating service in August after more than 30 years at Standard & Poor’s. Morningstar said...

Six months ago, AmeriHome Mortgage of California was a little known subsidiary of Impac Mortgage Holdings. But not anymore. Now controlled by Athene Holding Ltd., an insurance company owned by Wall Street veteran Leon Black, the nonbank lender is gearing up to make a splash in the jumbo and non-agency market as a correspondent buyer of mortgages. “They’re...

Major post-crisis changes in the mortgage market should boost new issuance of residential MBS and have a long-lasting, positive impact on credit, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service cites three key developments that will continue to support a strong credit environment for new MBS issuance, starting with the final rule on ability to repay and qualified mortgages. Moody’s believes the rule will help MBS performance by improving the reliability and accuracy of data lenders use to underwrite loans. Under the ATR rules, lenders are required...

Sources tell IMFnews that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking into the matter and is promoting the idea of capital minimums for nonbanks that do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Several top-tier commercial banks increased their holdings of first-lien mortgages during the first quarter of 2014, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The growing portfolios were largely due to jumbo mortgages along with some conforming loans. Banks and thrifts held $1.74 trillion in first-lien mortgages in portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2014, down 0.7 percent from the previous quarter ... [Includes one data chart]