SIFMA did not take a stance on whether g-fees should be adjusted up or down. Instead, the trade group stressed that it is unclear how a change to g-fees would impact non-agency activity.
Purchase-mortgage originations jumped 44.3 percent from the first quarter of 2014 to the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking, with first-time homebuyers representing about 43.9 percent of agency activity in the sector. Purchase mortgages accounted for 64.1 percent of total mortgage production during the second quarter. That’s the highest purchase share since 1995, when financing for home purchases represented 67.2 percent of total originations. At the midway point of 2014, purchase-mortgage originations were up...[Includes four data charts]
For now, nonbanks that fund non-QMs must sell them to an investor unless they have a balance sheet. Securitizations likely won’t happen until sometime in 2015.
The Finance Agency filed suit against HSBC and 17 other firms in 2011. The two remaining defendants in the cases include Nomura Holdings and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
Banks large and small continue to add mortgages to their portfolios, with new additions outpacing runoff from refinances and foreclosures. The new additions to bank portfolios are largely jumbo mortgages, though some lenders are retaining agency-eligible loans. Banks and thrifts held a total of $1.76 trillion of first-lien mortgages in portfolio as of the end of the second quarter of 2014, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of call reports. The first-lien holdings were up 1.4 percent compared with the previous quarter and level compared with the second quarter of 2013. Among the four largest holders of first liens, only Bank of America decreased its portfolio in the second quarter. Compared with the second quarter of 2013, JPMorgan Chase was the only bank among the big four to increase its first-lien holdings.
Redwood Trust’s planned $329.95 million jumbo mortgage-backed security is the second straight MBS from the issuer to have adequate geographic diversity, according to Fitch Ratings. Almost every jumbo MBS issued since 2010 has taken a hit from default expectations and had higher credit enhancement because of geographic concentration. Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2014-3 is scheduled to be issued around Sept. 19. Fitch, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service gave the deal preliminary triple-A ratings with credit enhancement of 6.55 percent on the top-rated tranche. The credit enhancement level is one of the lowest in recent years on jumbo MBS backed by 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. It is particularly low considering that due diligence was completed on less than 100 percent of the loans, and the MBS will include two loans that do not meet standards for qualified mortgages.