Bank and thrift holdings of first-lien mortgages increased by 2.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of bank and thrift call reports. The holdings were boosted by jumbo mortgages, with few of the loans being delivered into mortgage-backed securities. Banks and thrifts held $1.90 trillion in first liens as of the end of June, up $44.22 billion from the end of March. Some $101.00 billion in jumbos were ... [Includes one data chart]

The next mortgage-backed security from Lone Star Funds backed by new nonprime originations will be larger than the deal it issued in June, according to presale reports published this week. The planned $216.97 million COLT 2016-2 will be the largest MBS backed by post-crisis nonprime originations, topping the $161.71 million COLT 2016-1. The MBS scheduled to close next week differs in some ways from the previous MBS from Lone Star. The firm’s Caliber Home Loans ...

Wells Fargo was hit with fines totaling $185.0 million this week for secretly opening unauthorized accounts for customers at the bank. Regulators said the bank’s incentives for cross-selling financial products pushed employees at Wells to open unwanted deposit and credit card accounts for customers of the bank. The fines were imposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ($100.0 million, the largest penalty ever imposed by the CFPB), the city and county of Los Angeles ...

Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions has significantly increased its nonprime wholesale lending this year, according to an offering document for the $132.65 million nonprime mortgage-backed security recently issued by Angel Oak Capital Advisors. AOMS originated $222.25 million in nonprime wholesale originations in the first half of this year, nearlyl matching its $224.16 million total for all of last year. But retail production at Angel Oak Home Loans has declined ...

The looser underwriting standards Redwood Trust rolled out earlier this year for jumbo mortgages are aimed at aggregating loans that banks won’t necessarily acquire, according to officials at the real estate investment trust. Redwood introduced its “Choice” program in April, allowing for credit scores as low as 661, debt-to-income ratios as high as 49.99 percent and combined loan-to-value ratios up to 90.0 percent. The characteristics aren’t all allowed on the same loan. For a ...

A $6.20 billion portfolio backed largely by jumbo mortgages originated in recent years was sold last week, according to Interactive Data. The portfolio appears to have been sold by Premium Point Investments, though the hedge fund wouldn’t confirm that. Premium Point backed WinWater Home Mortgage, which stopped issuing jumbo mortgage-backed securities earlier this year. Impac Mortgage Holdings announced this week an offering of 2.5 million shares ... [Includes two briefs]

Real estate investment trusts that specialize in residential MBS posted a slight increase in their agency MBS holdings during the second quarter of 2016, along with a drop in non-agency MBS. The 16 publicly traded mortgage REITs tracked by Inside MBS & ABS had a combined residential MBS portfolio of $234.65 billion at the end of June, a gain of 0.9 percent from the previous quarter. However, 11 of the institutions reported declining balances, including the two largest REITs at the top of the ranking. Two Harbors Investment reported...[Includes one data table]

Over the past week, two nonprime MBS deals came to light: a $138.89 million bond issued by Deephaven Residential Mortgage Trust and a $119.38 million security from Angel Oak Real Estate Investment Trust. Both deals were private placements backed by newly originated mortgages and underwritten by Wall Street veterans Credit Suisse and Nomura Securities. Although both were publicized this week, the transactions – which were not rated – closed...

One of the fastest-growing top-10 originators, loanDepot, this month came to market with a $150 million debt financing deal that portends good things for other firms looking to raise capital in a tough stock market. “The cost of money has really come down for nonbanks,” said consultant Paul Hindman. The privately held loanDepot disclosed...

A total of $333.1 billion of residential MBS backed by freshly originated home loans were issued during the second quarter of 2016, a 30.3 percent increase over the first three months of the year. But that trailed the 34.2 percent surge in primary-market originations during the same period. The result was a further decline in the mortgage securitization rate, from 67.3 percent in the first quarter to 65.3 percent in the second, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. It marked the lowest securitization rate since 2004, when the non-agency MBS market was just beginning to take off. The biggest decline was...[Includes one data table]