Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans remain widely available, thanks to the independent lenders that rallied to plug the gaps as major players bolted from the reverse mortgage market, an industry executive told lawmakers this week. In testimony during a House subcommittee hearing on FHA regulation of the HECM market, Jeffrey Lewis, CEO of Generation Mortgage Co., said MetLife’s departure from the market and closure of its traditional mortgage-origination business say nothing about the value of the HECM product to consumers. Lewis said MetLife’s decision was a strategic one and had nothing to do with ... (1 chart)

Option One Mortgage Corp. this week agreed to pay $28.2 million to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the former subprime lender’s MBS disclosures regarding its ability to cover repurchase demands. Much of the litigation over failed non-agency MBS has focused on alleged misrepresentation about the quality of the loans delivered to securitization trusts, the servicing of those loan pools and the performance of trustees. The Option One settlement stems from the SEC’s contention that the company, one of the leading subprime lenders and securitizers during the heyday of...

Germany’s second largest state-owned bank is looking to the U.S. courts for relief after accusing Deutsche Bank of perpetuating a fraud on it in the sale of over $810 million in toxic residential MBS. Last week, Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) filed suit against Deutsche in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan alleging that Deutsche packaged risky and poor quality loans into securities while simultaneously taking short positions against the securities. According to the complaint, Deutsche officials internally disparaged the quality of the loans underlying the residential MBS even as it...

The four major banks reclassified $6.0 billion in home-equity loans to nonperforming status this month due to guidance from federal regulators. While the holdings have been seen as an impediment to loss mitigation efforts, the banks said the accounting change was essentially cosmetic. Bank of America classified $4.36 billion in HELs as nonperforming as of the end of the first quarter of 2012, up from $2.45 billion at the end of 2011. The increase was due to ...

Invesco liquidated its fund in the Public-Private Investment Program this month, earning a strong 18.2 percent cumulative net internal rate of return on $2.3 billion in capital. “The PPIP program has resuscitated the private-label mortgage-backed securities market and, at least in our case, resulted in a handsome profit to the Treasury Department,” said Wilbur Ross, chairman of the Investment Committee of the fund and chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co. “We are proud to have participated in it.” Among the seven non-agency public-private investment funds that were participating in the PPIP ... [Includes one data chart]

Repurchase requests on mortgages in non-agency mortgage-backed securities increased for major banks during the first quarter of 2012 compared with the end of 2011, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. However, the lenders have challenged the vast majority of the claims and a significant court decision appears to be heading toward ...

Facing a deadline set by the Dodd-Frank Act for the beginning of 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working on an ability-to-repay rule to define “qualified mortgages.” While industry participants have warned that few non-QMs will be originated, Raj Date, deputy director of the CFPB, said the regulator hopes to ensure that “prudent loans” will benefit from sufficient investor appetite and a competitive market. “We want to avoid any inappropriate disincentive that would prevent lenders from making ...

Continuing financial problems at Ally Financial’s Residential Capital have prompted speculation among industry analysts that Ally will agree to sell at least a portion of ResCap’s $10.9 billion legacy portfolio within the next two months. Nationstar Mortgage has been mentioned as a front-runner to acquire ResCap’s non-agency mortgage servicing rights, although other servicers have also considered the acquisition. “In light of ResCap’s liquidity and capital needs combined with volatile conditions in the marketplace, there is substantial doubt about ...

The company formerly known as Option One reached a $28.2 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week regarding issuance of subprime mortgage-backed securities in early 2007. The SEC said Option One’s MBS “operated as a fraud or deceit” against non-agency MBS investors. “The offering documents misled investors about Option One’s precarious financial condition and, hence, its inability to fulfill its obligations on its own to repurchase ...

Regulatory scrutiny of lender-placed insurance is increasing, but non-agency servicers claim that they are compliant with existing and impending regulations for such insurance coverage. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is focusing on lender-placed insurance, provisions were also included in the recent $25.0 billion servicing settlement, Fannie Mae recently updated its policies and a number of state investigations are underway. “There appear to be a number of very significant problems with ...