Wells Fargo remained the most dominant lender in the sector with $42.28 billion of jumbo originations in 2014, down 2.5 percent from the year before.

Nearly $1.0 billion in non-agency MBS was included in the rating action by Fitch.

In case you’re wondering, Ocwen services roughly $208 billion of non-agency product.

CashCall recently started offering loans that do not meet qualified mortgage standards. The lender’s “NQM” program targets borrowers who cannot qualify for agency financing. The minimum credit score is 680 and CashCall is flexible in determining ability to repay, including the use of cash flow from investment accounts. Home Loan Servicing Solutions announced this week that no non-agency mortgage-backed security investors have ... [Includes two briefs]

Fueled by demand from banks, jumbo mortgages accounted for 19.0 percent of total mortgage originations in 2014, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, the highest it has been since 2002. But last year’s jumbo production volume, estimated at $235.0 billion, was down 13.6 percent from 2013. However, total originations declined by 34.4 percent in that time. An estimated $67.0 billion in jumbos were originated in the fourth quarter of 2014 ... [Includes one data chart]

Securitization was still the dominant method to fund new home mortgage production in 2014, but Wall Street got a run for its money from portfolio lenders. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals that 70.5 percent of residential mortgages originated last year were funneled into mortgage securities. That was down from 78.5 percent in 2013 and represented the lowest mortgage securitization rate since 2006. Delivering eligible loans into new Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securities is...[Includes one data chart]

AAMC said that while at BofA, Ellison was “the executive leading the team that managed the valuation and disposition of Bank of America’s legacy mortgage loan portfolio.”

Lenders and investors are getting more comfortable with loans that don’t meet the qualified-mortgage standard, according to industry participants. A non-agency mortgage-backed security backed primarily by non-QMs could be issued as soon as this year. Chris Haspel, a partner and head of capital markets at Fenway Summer, whose Ethos Lending is originating non-QMs, said the “fear level” among rating services and warehouse lenders regarding non-QMs has ...

Separate efforts by the Treasury Department and the Structured Finance Industry Group aimed at attracting investors to new non-agency mortgage-backed securities continue to progress, according to industry analysts. The Treasury is working to facilitate a benchmark non-agency MBS while SFIG continues to develop standards as part of Project RMBS 3.0. Eric Kaplan, a managing director at Shellpoint Partners and leader of Project RMBS 3.0, said ...

Potential investors in jumbo mortgage-backed securities continue to push issuers to make significant changes to the way the market operates. “How is this ever going to be a $300 billion market if everybody has to look at reps and warrants on a deal-by-deal basis?” said Allan Berliant, a portfolio manager at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo. “There needs to be a streamlined industry standard.” Berliant and many others called for changes at the ABS Vegas conference ...