Bank and thrift holdings of home-equity loans continue to decline, particularly holdings of closed-end second liens. Even though performance on the loans currently remains strong, industry analysts warn that these assets could cause major losses. Banks and thrifts held $1.18 trillion in home-equity lines of credit, unused HELOC commitments and closed-end seconds at the end of 2011, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. That was down 1.5 percent from the third quarter of 2011 and down 8.8 percent from the end of 2010 ... [Includes one data chart]

A subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group issued a $741.94 million non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security at the end of March, the first jumbo issuance by a company other than Redwood Trust since 2008. CSMC Trust 2012-CIM1 included some unique characteristics prompting criticism from Fitch Ratings and speculation about whether Credit Suisse will issue more non-agency MBS. Standard & Poor’s and DBRS placed AAA ratings on the senior bond in the privately-placed deal based on 8.00 percent credit enhancement. Fitch – which was paid to provide feedback on the deal but ultimately was not selected to rate the deal – said the credit enhancement for the AAA tranche should have been 9.75 percent ...

Springleaf Finance completed another subprime mortgage-backed security comprised of vintage performing loans this week, its second such MBS in eight months. However, the firm is facing significant financial difficulties and stopped offering mortgages at the beginning of the year. The $473.01 million subprime MBS received a AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s, just like Springleaf’s $496.86 million subprime MBS in September. As with the previous security, the latest MBS was backed by seasoned performing loans, an average of six years-old in this case ...

First Republic Bank – the primary source of loans for Redwood Trust non-agency mortgage-backed securities – has received high marks for its jumbo originations. FRB’s originations are concentrated around San Francisco, largely for wealthy borrowers. After relying on CitiMortgage for all of the loans in its first post-bust non-agency MBS issuance, Redwood has relied heavily on FRB. The lender accounted for a slight majority of the four securities totaling $1.41 billion Redwood has issued in 2011 and at the beginning of 2012 ...

Shortly after being acquired by Capital One Financial, jumbo lender ING Direct announced last week that it will exit the wholesale business. However, Capital One stressed that the lender will continue to offer jumbos on a retail basis. ING Bank was the sixth-ranked non-agency jumbo lender in 2011, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets, with an estimated $5.04 billion in such originations. That was down 26.9 percent from the previous year. A spokesman for Capital One said exiting wholesale lending will allow Capital One to ...

Subprime lending standards appear to be loosening across numerous asset classes, including home loans, but it is still difficult for borrowers to get a subprime mortgage. Equifax recently reported that subprime originations have grown as of the end of 2011 compared with the end of 2010. The company’s National Consumer Credit Trends Report was produced with Moody’s Analytics, and included details on credit cards, auto finance, consumer finance, retail credit and student loans. “The evidence of increased lending to subprime consumers demonstrates banks’ ongoing efforts to ...

The $25 billion servicing settlement involving five major bank servicers was approved by the US District Court for the District of Columbia on April 4 without a formal challenge from the Association of Mortgage Investors or anyone else. The servicers and settlement monitor Joseph Smith will agree on deadlines to implement the settlement’s various provisions, with the deadlines to be set between 60 days after approval of the settlement and up to 180 days after approval ... [Includes four briefs]

The focus on foreclosure documentation on forward mortgages has set the stage for similar scrutiny on reverse mortgages, and the extra documentation required in a reverse mortgage adds to this challenge, according to compliance experts. In a recent legal analysis, Christopher Willis and Mercedes Kelly Tunstall, litigation attorney and of counsel at the Washington law firm Ballard Spahr, respectively, said reverse mortgage lenders and servicers could avoid many of the problems encountered by forward mortgages by examining their foreclosure process carefully and learning from ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has hired a new contractor to service Home Equity Conversion Mortgages and other secretary-held mortgage assets. Irving, TX-based Deval, LLC, officially took over from C&L Service Corp. as HUD’s new loan servicing contractor effective March 1. Servicers may assign loans through Deval once they reach 98 percent of the maximum claim amount. As part of its servicer duties, Deval will handle borrower inquiries, payoff requests for Hope for Homeowners mortgages, HECM servicer inquiries and certain HECM-related requests. In addition to assigned HECM loans, Deval will be ...

Non-agency MBS deals have been plagued in the last two to three years by increasing instances of gaps and mismatches between expected collateral cash flow and payouts to bond holders, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. Most of the mismatches are attributable to balance capitalization, modifications and advances, either stopped or recovered by the mortgage servicers. Since most of the discrepancies are due to the treatment of delinquent mortgages, the gaps are widest in subprime. Sporadic mismatches have been spotted in option ARMs and Alt A hybrid loans as well, the analysts said...