Although the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is still months away from officially clarifying certain parts of its complicated integrated disclosure rule known as TRID, the secondary market – and some attorneys – are already breathing a sigh of relief. But the big question remains: how far will the agency go? And will it provide enough clarity to ease the fears of buyers about being sued for monetary errors? The rule, which integrated consumer disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, became...

Announcements by two real estate investment trusts that are prominent in jumbo lending underscore two key themes in the market: increased competition and the lingering headache caused by the TRID disclosure rule. Redwood Trust recently launched an “expanded prime” program known as “Redwood Choice” for correspondent sellers. “The Choice program is a prime program that is fully documented, but with credit parameters outside our more recent underwriting guidelines,” Redwood said. Choice features...

Competition in the correspondent channel prompted EverBank Financial to slow its jumbo production, according to company officials. EverBank had $724.54 million in jumbo originations in the first quarter of 2016, down 32.5 percent from the previous quarter and down 44.3 percent from the first quarter of 2015. Officials said the reduction was focused in correspondent lending. The bank also has retail and consumer direct origination channels. Robert Clements, EverBank’s chairman and CEO, said...

Among the government-sponsored enterprises’ holdings of nonprime mortgages, non-agency mortgage-backed securities are declining much more quickly than purchased/guaranteed mortgages, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The combined nonprime MBS holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined by 9.6 percent during the first quarter of 2016 compared with the end of 2015. The GSEs’ combined purchased/guaranteed holdings of subprime mortgages and Alt A mortgages declined by 4.1 percent in that time. Similar trends are evident on a yearly basis. MBS account...

Caliber Home Loans recently loosened the standards for one of its non-qualified mortgage products. The lender’s “Fresh Start” mortgage now allows loan-to-value ratios up to 85.0 percent, up from 80.0 percent. And private mortgage insurance isn’t...[Includes five briefs]

Retail loan originations account for most new VA lending, but the correspondent channel plays an outsized role in the FHA market, especially in purchase-mortgage lending, according to a new analysis of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities data by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Over half (51.1 percent) of VA loans securitized through Ginnie MBS in the first quarter of 2016 were retail originations, but only 39.1 percent of FHA loans came through that channel. The biggest source of FHA loans was correspondent lenders, which accounted for 45.8 percent of loans securitized during the first three months of this year. That was actually slightly below the 49.2 percent correspondent share of FHA loans back in 2014 and 46.8 percent last year. Correspondents accounted for well over half (53.9 percent) of FHA purchase mortgages during the first quarter, while playing a more ... [ 3 charts ]

The California Reinvestment Coalition last week called upon the Department of Housing and Urban Development to impose a moratorium to prevent CIT Group and its servicing subsidiary, Financial Freedom, from initiating any more reverse mortgage foreclosures. The CRC’s request is based in part on data it obtained from HUD indicating an unusually high foreclosure rate for Financial Freedom/CIT Group.According to the data, Financial Freedom’s 39 percent share of reverse mortgage foreclosures since April 2009 is more than two times greater than the company’s estimated market share. The CRC began looking into Financial Freedom’s foreclosure history after receiving complaints from a number of widowed homeowners and other heirs about Freedom’s foreclosure practices, said Kevin Stein, CRC associate director. Stein said the CRC filed a data request under the ...

A lack of formal guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding TRID mortgage disclosures won’t prevent rating services from placing ratings on new non-agency MBS. The rating services are even willing to rate new deals before the Structured Finance Industry Group releases standards for the handling of TRID issues by third-party due diligence firms. However, issuers and investors appear to be less comfortable with liability from the rule the CFPB implemented in October combining the disclosure requirements of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Save for a $331.95 million jumbo MBS issued by Two Harbors Investment at the end of March, no firm has issued a deal that includes loans subject to TRID. On March 18, SFIG proposed...

Caliber Home Loans was assessed by Moody’s Investors Service as an originator of “expanded-credit” mortgages last week. Caliber is the first lender to receive a rating from Moody’s for expanded-credit mortgages, which could pave the way for the first rated non-agency mortgage-backed security that includes non-qualified mortgages. The rating service defined Caliber’s expanded-credit mortgages as non-agency mortgages that are not prime jumbo loans. Moody’s said ...

Underwriting standards on the four prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued in the first quarter of 2016 loosened marginally compared with the typical prime jumbo MBS issued in recent years, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The combined loan-to-value ratio on prime non-agency MBS issued in the first quarter of 2016 averaged 69.8 percent. That was somewhat higher than the average combined ... [Includes one data chart]