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]

The government-sponsored enterprises continued to sell their holdings of vintage nonprime mortgages and non-agency mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter of 2016. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stopped acquiring such assets after the financial crisis, but the loans and MBS routinely account for an outsized share of credit losses at the GSEs. Fannie and Freddie held nonprime mortgages with a total unpaid principal balance of ... [Includes one data chart]

Two Harbors Investment held jumbo mortgages with a fair market value of $655.80 million as of the end of September. While the real estate investment trust is on track to discontinue its mortgage loan conduit and securitization business, Two Harbors noted that it had outstanding purchase commitments to acquire $61.40 million in unpaid principal balance as of the end of September. Two Harbors said it incurred $1.19 million in costs during the third quarter ... [Includes three briefs]

The jumbo market is dominated by retail lenders to a greater extent than either conventional-conforming production or government-insured lending, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. A group of 19 top jumbo lenders reported $92.45 billion in jumbo originations through their retail operations during the first half of 2016. That represented 76.8 percent of the $120.37 billion in total jumbo production for the group. The 19 lenders accounted...[Includes one data table]

The latest jumbo mortgage-backed security from Redwood Trust includes some differences compared with the two jumbo MBS the firm issued earlier this year. The $343.16 million deal includes loans from many lenders and contributions from a Federal Home Loan Bank program. Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2016-3 received preliminary AAA ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service. The MBS will include...