Moody’s Investors Service issued a “special comment” this week to warn that the new non-agency jumbo MBS issued by JPMorgan Chase would not have received a AAA rating from Moody’s, had the firm been asked to rate the deal. The rating service raised concerns about representations and warranties and a lack of risk retention on the deal.

It hasn’t been an easy time for due diligence firms that make their living off the mortgage business, at least not this year. Firms like Allonhill LLC, which bulked up on staff to handle the rush of work on investor buyback demands, have been cutting back in recent months as those contracts run their natural course.

Fannie Mae may be having second thoughts about selling nonperforming loans into the secondary market where cash-rich investors are waiting with bated breath.

According to an analysis by Fitch Ratings, the overall charges for a simple jumbo non-agency MBS across all note-holders would increase to between 6.3 percent and 8.2 percent under the new proposal.

Is Navy Federal's no-downpayment product safe? It believes so, and is quite happy with the delinquency experience on the loan but won't provide specifics.

Interest-only lending picked up steam in 2012 despite new regulations that make the loans less attractive from a 'qualified mortgage' point of view.

Moody’s said the JPMorgan Mortgage Trust 2013-1 has a weak representations and warranties framework, a restrictive rep and warrant enforcement mechanism and a lack of risk retention by Chase.

Holding fixed-rate mortgages in portfolio was considered a dangerous practice for depositories, but no more.

A third non-agency, nonprime lender may come into being this year.

With several new jumbo MBS deals in the works – from Redwood Trust, JPMorgan Chase and EverBank Financial – it would seem likely that a robust market might develop for the subordinate tranches of these transactions. But so far it’s been a case of plenty of interest in the instrument, but little in the way of available product.