Increased mortgage insurance premiums combined with hefty penalties assessed on lenders will generate additional revenue that may keep the FHA mortgage insurance program afloat. Nevertheless, the price for keeping the fund solvent will make fewer borrowers qualified for an FHA loan, according to lenders. Lenders say the upfront mortgage insurance premium increase will have little effect on borrowers because the charge can be rolled into the loan amount. Changes to the annual MIP, however, will decrease FHA business in general because the cost of the annual MIP will have to be included in the ...

Ginnie Mae will publish, in advance, the CUSIP and pool information for multiple issuer pools (MIP) on its website for the current month, plus the upcoming three months of issuance. The information will be published by pool term, pool type and security interest rate. This enhancement applies to all securities with an April 1, 2012, issue date and thereafter. According to Ginnie Mae, publishing the CUSIP and pool numbers will improve issuers’ ability to manage their loan pipelines and MIP loan package submissions before the pool is finalized. Both the finalized CUSIP and pool numbers as well as the future CUSIP and pool numbers for MIPs will be ...

The volume of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans continued to drop both on quarterly and yearly bases while the overall FHA market ended January 2012 on a weaker note compared to the same month last year. HECM production fell 11.0 percent in 2011 from the previous year to $16.9 billion and off 20.6 percent from the third to the fourth quarter. Sponsors as a share of lender originations accounted for 40.7 percent of new HECM loans originated over the 12-month period. Initial principal amount at origination totaled $10.9 billion. Wells Fargo Bank ended the year as ... (with 2 charts)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is apparently on the verge of deciding in which jurisdiction the pending $8.5 billion Bank of America/Countrywide residential MBS representations and warranties settlement with Bank of New York Mellon and investors will be finalized. The final outcome is expected to influence similar disputes involving other large mortgage originators, but probably on a smaller scale. Last week, the appeals court held a hearing to determine if the case should be moved back to New York state court, which would accelerate a conclusion of the settlement. “A final decision from...

Reaction among non-agency participants regarding the settlement by five large bank servicers announced last week has been mixed. Investors are divided on what impact principal forgiveness loan modifications will have on non-agency mortgage-backed securities – largely because the settlement terms have not been settled yet. “Once the bank modifies their own portfolio loans, where it makes sense to reduce principal, there is a huge incentive to do the rest of the modifications using investor money,” warned Amherst Securities Group. “This stems from the fact that the servicers are able to use investor funds to satisfy their own claims. And the conflicts of interest are exacerbated because of the second liens ...

Non-agency market participants and stock investors appear to be optimistic about the prospects for real estate investment trusts. REITs are positioned to absorb a portion of the agency share of mortgage origination activity, and investor interest in REIT stocks has increased recently. “REITs should definitely take a big part of the agency footprint,” said Michael Commaroto, president and CEO of Apollo Residential Mortgage, a hybrid REIT. Such REITs invest in both agency MBS and non-agency MBS, with agency MBS generally accounting for most of the investing portfolio ...

After making a splash with plans to issue a non-agency mortgage-backed security in 2011, officials at Two Harbors Investment have backed away from a potential new issuance, instead focusing on investing in vintage non-agency MBS. “We don’t want to do a securitization simply to do a securitization,” said Tom Siering, president and CEO of Two Harbors. “It simply must be good for shareholders.” During an investor presentation last week, Siering said returns on investments in non-agency MBS in recent months have been much greater than the returns the real estate investment trust would see from issuing its own non-agency MBS ...

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is gradually ramping up its non-agency jumbo correspondent activity, with plans to expand even further in the coming years. “As the markets develop, one area that will become an increasing focus for PennyMac is non-agency jumbo loans,” said Stanford Kurland, chairman and CEO of the real estate investment trust. PennyMac had $15.0 million in jumbo correspondent originations in the fourth quarter of 2011, up slightly from $13.0 million the previous quarter and $7.0 million in the second quarter of 2011 ...

The $25.0 billion servicing settlement is just the latest step toward standardized servicing regulation, according to industry analysts. Many non-agency servicers have taken major steps to prepare for an overhaul of servicing regulation, though increased costs are a concern. “It appears that non-agency MBS servicers have already made significant operational changes in an effort to address process deficiencies identified in this settlement and by regulators,” Fitch Ratings said. As with federal consent orders several servicers agreed to last year ...

A new report from Fitch Ratings finds that risk appetite is returning to the U.S. triparty repo market, thanks in part to deeply discounted collateral, much of which is in the form of Alt A and subprime residential MBS and collateralized debt obligations. Fitch’s study of the market is based on repo transaction information drawn from a sample of the 10 largest U.S. prime money market funds’ financial statements. Fitch’s sample encompasses about $90 billion in repo transactions as of the end of August 2011, which represents slightly more than 5 percent of the $1.6 trillion U.S. triparty repo market...