Pricing has improved sequentially with each of the three jumbo mortgage-backed securities Redwood Trust has issued this year, according to officials at the real estate investment trust. Redwood’s most recent deal, a $343.16 million jumbo MBS, was issued in October. Christopher Abate, Redwood’s president and CFO, said it’s possible that the REIT will issue another jumbo MBS this year. Marty Hughes, Redwood’s CEO, added a caveat about uncertainty in the financial markets ...

The Structured Finance Industry Group published the fourth edition of its “RMBS 3.0 Green Papers” this week. The trade group said it will release a fifth edition of the Green Papers in the coming weeks. The latest papers address various issues in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market, including representations and warranties, the concept of a deal agent and data disclosure. Moody’s Investors Service this month withdrew its assessment of ... [Includes two briefs]

Most of the lift in third-quarter mortgage originations came from the tail end of the refinance boom, especially in the agency market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. The government-insured market saw a hefty 21.4 percent jump in mortgage originations from the second to the third quarter as the sector reached an estimated $159.0 billion and accounted for 27.4 percent of total first-lien production. It was the second consecutive record quarter for FHA, VA and Department of Agriculture rural-housing production. The conventional-conforming segment was not far behind...[Includes two data tables]

As the new breed of subprime lenders continues to increase originations, these firms are now actively pondering whether they should approach the rating agencies about getting their firms rated. Dan Perl, founder and CEO of nonprime/non-QM lender Citadel Servicing, Irvine, CA, said his firm has approached Fitch Ratings and hopes to get rated as both a servicer and originator. Perl believes some of his competitors are going down the same path as well. He told...

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement amount to ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. to resolve allegations of fraud related to insurance on a collateralized debt obligation backed by subprime mortgages. Details of the Abacus CDO settlement were not disclosed, although ACA initially sought $120 million in damages. First filed in 2011, ACA’s lawsuit accused Goldman Sachs and hedge fund Paulson & Co. of fraudulently persuading it to guarantee payments on the CDO prior to the financial crisis. ACA alleged...

An affiliate of Shelter Growth Capital Partners issued its first nonprime MBS late last week, according to offering documents obtained by Inside MBS & ABS. The $113.71 million deal included non-qualified mortgages from a number of lenders. The mortgages in SG Residential Mortgage Trust 2016-1 were acquired by SG Capital Partners, an affiliate of Shelter Growth, an investment manager and hedge fund. SG Capital Partners started acquiring non-agency mortgages in January 2015. As of June 1, Shelter Growth had...

The government-sponsored enterprises are well on their way to trimming their retained mortgage portfolios to less than $250.0 billion each by the start of 2018. As of the end of the third quarter, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had a combined mortgage portfolio of $615.65 billion, down 3.3 percent from June. While Freddie historically had the larger retained holdings, the two portfolios are now roughly equal. Under the current terms of their conservatorship, Fannie and Freddie are required...[Includes one data table]

An affiliate of Shelter Growth Capital Partners issued a $113.71 million nonprime mortgage-backed security last week, according to offering documents obtained by Inside Nonconforming Markets. SG Residential Mortgage Trust 2016-1 is the first MBS from Shelter Growth’s SG Capital Partners. Shelter Growth is an investment manager and hedge fund with $1.08 billion in assets under management as of June 1, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ...

Jumbo lending declined in the third quarter of 2016 on a quarterly basis at some mid-sized banks, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Officials at the banks suggest that the market for jumbo mortgages is still relatively strong, however, with some showing increased pipelines for originations. First Republic Bank had $2.81 billion in total mortgage originations in the third quarter of 2016, down 4.4 percent from the previous quarter. Most of the bank’s production ...

Purchase mortgages accounted for a large share of the loans in prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued during the third quarter of 2016, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Purchase mortgages accounted for 67.3 percent of the $4.07 billion in prime non-agency MBS issued during the quarter. That was the highest quarterly share for purchase mortgages since at least the first quarter of 2013. The purchase-mortgage ... [Includes two data charts]