Six months ago, AmeriHome Mortgage of California was a little known subsidiary of Impac Mortgage Holdings. But not anymore. Now controlled by Athene Holding Ltd., an insurance company owned by Wall Street veteran Leon Black, the nonbank lender is gearing up to make a splash in the jumbo and non-agency market as a correspondent buyer of mortgages. “They’re...

Major post-crisis changes in the mortgage market should boost new issuance of residential MBS and have a long-lasting, positive impact on credit, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service cites three key developments that will continue to support a strong credit environment for new MBS issuance, starting with the final rule on ability to repay and qualified mortgages. Moody’s believes the rule will help MBS performance by improving the reliability and accuracy of data lenders use to underwrite loans. Under the ATR rules, lenders are required...

Sources tell IMFnews that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking into the matter and is promoting the idea of capital minimums for nonbanks that do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Several top-tier commercial banks increased their holdings of first-lien mortgages during the first quarter of 2014, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The growing portfolios were largely due to jumbo mortgages along with some conforming loans. Banks and thrifts held $1.74 trillion in first-lien mortgages in portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2014, down 0.7 percent from the previous quarter ... [Includes one data chart]

WinWater Home Mortgage, a relatively new jumbo conduit, is preparing to issue a $249.47 million jumbo mortgage-backed security. The deal is set to receive AAA ratings from DBRS, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Standard & Poor’s despite concerns about the lack of performance data for WinWater and the firm’s “limited financial capacity.” WinWater is partly owned by principals of Premium Point Investments, a residential mortgage investment advisor ...

CitiMortgage is preparing to issue its first jumbo mortgage-backed security of the year, a $217.99 million deal largely backed by mortgages originated by brokers. The top contributors to Citigroup Mortgage Loan Trust 2014-J1 are Stearns Lending (33.5 percent), Nationstar Mortgage (30.3 percent) and Freedom Mortgage (11.3 percent). The deal is set to receive AAA ratings from DBRS and Fitch Ratings with credit enhancement of 9.525 percent on the super-senior tranche ...

Redwood Trust could boost its jumbo acquisitions by $5.0 billion a year, according to industry analysts, due to a new partnership with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. The real estate investment trust announced last week that it has an exclusive three-year deal to purchase “high balance” mortgages from FHLBank members participating in a new product under the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program. Under the new MPF Direct, members of an ...

In December, the Federal Housing Finance Agency was set to increase the guaranty fees charged by the government-sponsored enterprises. However, Melvin Watt, the new director of the FHFA, put a hold on the planned g-fee increase and is taking a much more deliberate look at the fees, including a potential decrease in g-fees. The FHFA this month released a request for input regarding the g-fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including questions about ...

While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has encouraged originations of loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages, consumer advocates this week voiced skepticism about the products. At a meeting by the CFPB’s consumer advisory board, Gary Acosta, CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, noted that most non-QM lenders appear to be focusing on jumbo borrowers. “Certainly that’s a gap,” he said of ...

Two firms plan to issue jumbo mortgage-backed securities next week, breaking a seven-week lull in issuance. However, jumbo MBS activity is expected to remain suppressed due to a number of factors, including dominance by the government-sponsored enterprises. “The idea that reform of the GSEs could pave the way for the private market’s return seems to have faded,” according to analysts at Standard & Poor’s. The rating service pointed to moves by ...