When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was working on the definition for qualified mortgages, some warned the regulator that only QMs would be available after the standards took effect. However, with the QM era set to begin Friday, a number of lenders will offer non-QMs even though such originations will come with increased liability. While interest-only mortgages don’t meet QM criteria, the loans will continue to be offered by lenders large and small. The government-sponsored enterprises won’t buy them, so the originations will be left to portfolio lenders and those with non-agency sales outlets. “We will continue making...

Residential lenders reported a gradual increase in interest-only originations as 2013 progressed, despite a decline in total production.

Monthly production of single-family MBS went into a steady, year-long decline at the beginning of 2013. In December, total single-family MBS issuance fell to just $77.1 billion, the lowest monthly production figure since July 2011.

Western Bancorp said it will lend to borrowers with credit scores as low as 620 and the loans are available to non-owner-occupied properties and first-time homebuyers.

Through the first nine months of 2013, an estimated 22 percent of the $1.59 trillion in mortgages originated (including second liens) had non-agency execution.

While activity plummeted in the second half of the year, jumbo MBS production in 2013 was nearly four times the level from the previous year.

Chief among the focal points of discussion will be the bureau's new ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, which establishes strong consumer protections that ensure qualified homebuyers have access to safe, affordable home loans they can pay back.

Just three jumbo mortgage-backed securities were issued in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. During the second quarter of the year, one deal was issued every week, on average. Investor demand for jumbo MBS plummeted after interest rates started to increase in May. A number of the deals that were completed in the second half of the year received minimal attention from investors, with at least one planned issuance scrapped ... [Includes one data chart]

Mel Watt, the incoming director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, appears to be taking a less aggressive stance toward decreasing the government-sponsored enterprises’ dominance of the mortgage market than Ed DeMarco, the acting director of the FHFA. The FHFA in December announced changes to GSE mortgage-backed security guaranty fees that would amount to an average increase of approximately 11 basis points, to be implemented in March and April ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said in December that it would wait until at least October before setting new “purchase limits” for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The regulator of the two government-sponsored enterprises is considering establishing purchase limits below the statutory conforming loan limits. In the highest-cost markets, the biggest loan the GSEs could buy would be $600,000, instead of $625,500. The national purchase limit would be $400,000, roughly 4 percent below the $417,000 conforming ...