Kroll Bond Rating Agency, one of the most commonly used rating services for jumbo mortgage-backed securities in recent years, released its criteria this week for jumbo MBS that include mortgages subject to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability to repay rule. The criteria from KBRA is similar to criteria from the other rating services, with higher credit enhancement requirements for certain loans that don’t meet the CFPB’s standards for qualified mortgages ...

Industry participants are divided on whether legislation under consideration in Congress to reform the government-sponsored enterprises will help encourage an increase in private capital in the mortgage market. In a speech this week, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was adamant that the GSE reform bill from Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, will encourage non-agency investors to return to the mortgage market ...

It’s now or never for Congress to pass legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises, according to Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Industry analysts predict that Congress is highly unlikely to finish work on GSE reform this year, extending uncertainty in the mortgage market. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is scheduled to markup GSE reform legislation next week ...

United Wholesale Mortgage is now offering jumbos on a wholesale basis with debt-to-income ratios as high as 49 percent allowed. The loans won’t receive protections for qualified mortgages as the DTI ratio limit for jumbo QMs is 43 percent. Loan amounts on United Wholesale’s Big & Easy Plus loan go up to $1.5 million. The lender said it will allow loan-to-value ratios on the mortgage of up to 75 percent while a borrower will need ... [Includes four briefs]

The FHA will allow lenders to suspend foreclosures on properties backed by Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans for up to 60 days to help non-borrowing spouses of deceased HECM borrowers temporarily avoid eviction and, possibly, foreclosure. The announcement of the policy came as a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia considered whether to certify a class-action case filed by four surviving spouses of HECM borrowers last month. The lawsuit alleges that HUD had failed to protect them from being displaced from their homes – the same protection HECM regulations extend to reverse mortgage borrowers. The suit accuses the department of violating the federal Administrative Procedures Act by promulgating contradictory regulations without public comment. Last September, a DC judge found HUD in violation of federal law in a similar case and ordered that the case ...

Some stakeholders said they called the firm’s investor relations department about the latest probe and were told the firm would be saying more about the matter when it reports first quarter earnings.

The total past-due rate on mortgages has declined in almost every quarter since the second quarter of 2011, helped by increasing home prices. However, not all vintages are performing in-step, as delinquencies are starting to increase on loans originated in 2004 and before.

The sputtering non-agency MBS market generated just $2.59 billion in new issuance during the first three months of 2014, one of the lowest quarterly marks since the market imploded in late 2007. New issuance in the first quarter was down 44.1 percent from the already-weak level in the fourth quarter of 2013, and it was off 65.6 percent from the same period a year ago. There was...[Includes two data charts]

Issuance of residential MBS from foreign countries aimed at investors in the U.S. dwindled in 2013 after a few years when it surpassed new issuance of domestic jumbo deals. Activity in the market for U.S. dollar-denominated foreign MBS has picked up somewhat this year due to issuance out of Australia. Some $1.63 billion in U.S. dollar-denominated foreign residential MBS was issued in 2013, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a significant decline from the $10.70 billion in such issuance in 2012. The market for foreign residential MBS aimed at U.S. investors has been strong since the end of 2009, with $21.10 billion in such issuance in 2010 and $32.68 billion in issuance in 2011. After the financial crisis, issuance of U.S. dollar-denominated foreign MBS outpaced...

Major market indicators suggest the subprime auto ABS sector has finally returned to normal after the financial crisis, and prospects are good for a healthy market in 2014, according to research professionals at Wells Fargo Securities. “Subprime auto ABS has fully recovered from the recession, in our view,” John McElravey, head of consumer ABS research for the firm, and Bee Sim Koh, an associate in the unit, said in a recent market update. For example, new-issue volume in the sector rose...