The “Brexit” vote in the United Kingdom last week helped significantly reduce interest rates on new jumbo mortgages. Looking forward, it’s not clear if rates will remain low, which would boost refinance volume, or if banks will make further adjustments. The Brexit vote prompted investors to increase their holdings of 10-year Treasury notes, pushing down yields. Interest rates on mortgages tend to follow trends in the 10-year Treasury, though rates on jumbo mortgages can be ...

The nonprime mortgage-backed security issued last week by Lone Star Funds could spur an increase in MBS backed by non-qualified mortgages, industry analysts say. The $161.71 million COLT 2016-1 Mortgage Loan Trust was the first MBS backed by non-QMs to receive a rating. Some 51.8 percent of the mortgages in the deal were non-QMs. All of the mortgages were originated by Lone Star’s Caliber Home Loans. The A-1 tranche of the MBS priced at spread of ...

New criteria from Fitch Ratings for rating non-agency mortgage-backed securities include provisions regarding due diligence grades and the deal agent position planned by some issuers. The criteria published this week include a “realignment” of items that result in C grades and D grades on mortgages reviewed by third-party due diligence firms. The changes include reviews for compliance with the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ...

The $1.89 billion non-agency mortgage-backed security issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank in April looked promising for boosters of the non-agency MBS market. However, analysts at one of the firms that rated the deal suggest that a number of factors could limit other banks from following Chase’s lead. “Some banks are likely hesitant to securitize loan portfolios because securitizations could reduce return on equity at a time when banks are already struggling to meet ...

HSBC Finance announced in June that it reached a $1.58 billion settlement on a subprime mortgage-related lawsuit filed back in 2002. The shareholder class-action lawsuit centered on activities by Household International, which was acquired by HSBC for $14.6 billion in 2003. The lawsuit claimed Household International and officials at the company made false or misleading statements about predatory lending practices, the quality of its loan portfolio, and the company’s ...

Bank and thrift holdings of non-agency mortgage-backed securities continue to decline on aggregate, mirroring the gradual drop in the amount of outstanding non-agency MBS. Banks and thrifts held $78.66 billion of non-agency MBS as of the end of the first quarter of 2016, according to a new ranking from the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. The holdings declined by 5.0 percent from the previous quarter and by ... [Includes one data chart]

Ocwen Financial faced mixed results in servicing litigation recently while avoiding further downgrades of its corporate issuer default rating. Last week, Ocwen announced that it had agreed to settle two lawsuits brought by the Department of Justice involving the Home Affordable Modification Program and FHA mortgages. The pending $30 million settlement involves alleged violations of the False Claims Act, among other issues. The lawsuits were brought in 2012 by ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced this week that an undisclosed number of lenders were found to be improperly disclosing interest-only payments on IO bridge mortgages, in violation of Regulation Z. The CFPB said the inaccurate disclosures were due to a software error as the lenders erroneously included a portion of the monthly payment amount that was to be applied to fees financed into the principal balance ... [Includes six briefs]

Investors in FHA’s distressed note sales program would be required to do more for homeowners to help them avoid foreclosure and keep their homes, thanks to improvements to FHA’s Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) announced this week by the agency. The changes appear aimed at consumer groups’ criticism of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for allowing profit-oriented investors to purchase the troubled HUD assets at a discount and flip the homes for a profit without ever helping the distressed homeowner. Although the transactions make good economic sense for investors and the government, struggling homeowners end up losing their homes without having tried any loan modification option that could have helped them avoid foreclosure. HUD launched the DASP in 2010 under pressure from Congress to help stabilize the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which ...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this week revised its securitization safe-harbor rule to clarify loss mitigation standards for mortgage servicers to synchronize it with the similar requirements issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The FDIC safe-harbor rule sets standards under which the agency will not attempt to capture assets of a failed bank that are transferred to qualifying securitizations. Under the previous rule, servicers of residential mortgages backing MBS that enjoy safe-harbor status were required to take loss mitigation action within 90 days after the loan becomes delinquent. In January 2013, the CFPB adopted...