FHA jumbo loan originations continued their quarterly fluctuations as production in the second quarter of 2013 slipped after a good run in the previous quarter, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. Volume fell 1.5 percent from the first quarter, during which the FHA posted $5.36 billion in jumbo mortgage originations. The first quarter number broke a declining production trend that began in the second quarter of last year when FHA reported $6.27 billion in jumbo lending. FHA lenders produced a total of $10.8 billion in new jumbo loans in the first half of 2013, down 2.7 percent from ... [2 charts]

During a Q&A session at the convention, MBS co-inventor Lew Ranieri said there is no “viable” alternative to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, noting that if the two disappear banks will not rush to put 30-year fixed rate loans on their books.

Bill Erbey, the company's founder and chairman, downplayed concerns that Ocwen is growing too quickly.

Moody’s believes the servicers’ transitions into mortgage originations was positive, but raised concerns about declining refinance opportunities, competition with banks and the potential for nonprime originations.

According to a copy of an early prospectus provided to IMF, lenders originating loans for the security include Nationstar Mortgage, Stearns Lending, Freedom Mortgage, Fifth Third Mortgage, Real Estate Mortgage Network and RMR Financial.

Citadel, which raised $200 million earlier in the year, has funded $18 million so far this year, but 40 percent of that has come in October. Eventually, it hopes to securitize its production.

CFPB chief Richard Cordray believes "the QM space has been drawn quite broadly" and estimates that more than 95 percent of the loans made in the current market will be deemed qualified mortgages.

Mortgage credit is not easing. Meanwhile: Why did the heads of the CFPB and FHFA cut and run at the MBA show?

Shellpoint Partners this week pulled the plug on its second jumbo non-agency MBS issuance of the year and will instead sell the mortgages as whole loans. Shellpoint Asset Funding Trust 2013-2 was initially offered as a $308.64 million deal in September. The company then reduced the offering to a $250.85 million securitization with a number of tweaks aimed at attracting investors. In the end, the company couldn’t structure...

Bank of America is putting up a strong defense and plans on whittling down the settlement price in a Federal Housing Finance Agency non-agency MBS fraud case against the company, sources close to the matter told Inside MBS & ABS. One official close to the due-diligence team working for BofA said the regulator seeks a $13 billion payment to settle charges that the bank and two companies it bought during the housing meltdown – Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch – sold faulty nonprime MBS to the government-sponsored enterprises. This source, who spoke under the condition his name not be published, said...[Includes one data chart]