The Structured Finance Industry Group is preparing to publish standards that aim to increase transparency for representations and warranties on new non-agency mortgage-backed securities, according to officials at the trade group. Eric Kaplan, a managing partner at Ranieri Strategies, said SFIG will release one or two “green papers” this year as part of the group’s RMBS 3.0 effort to revive issuance of non-agency MBS. He said the next green paper from SFIG will ... [Includes two briefs]

Ocwen Financial accounted for slightly more than half of the modifications completed under the new Streamline Home Affordable Modification Program offering, according to the company. Streamline HAMP mods are only available for non-agency mortgages. The program is aimed at borrowers who meet general HAMP eligibility criteria but haven’t completed a loan mod application by the time their loan is 90 days delinquent. It’s streamlined in that no income documentation is ...

Ocwen Financial failed two metrics under the national mortgage settlement involving force-placed insurance, according to a report this week by the settlement’s monitor. The failures related to activity in the fourth quarter of 2015. The servicer had a 24.2 percent error rate on the timeliness of force-placed insurance notices, well above the 5.0 percent error rate allowed under the settlement. Ocwen said most of the errors were attributable to the implementation of a new ...

A final rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding loss mitigation and other servicing practices will be positive for the servicing of non-agency mortgages, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service said the rule will help standardize and improve servicing practices by increasing automation and clarifying ambiguities in the interpretation of regulatory requirements. Most of the provisions in the new rule will take effect in a year ...

Ocwen Financial agreed to a consent order with the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions this week, which included a $900,000 fine. The consent order related to Ocwen’s use of offshore unlicensed affiliate companies to service mortgages on properties in Washington state. Going forward, Ocwen agreed to service Washington-based mortgages only through licensed entities and the state will not license foreign entities ... [Includes three briefs]

Among the top 15 subprime servicers, only Caliber Home Loans increased its portfolio during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Caliber handled $18.62 billion in subprime mortgages as of the end of June, up 4.4 percent from March. During that span, the total amount of subprime mortgage outstanding fell by 4.2 percent to an estimated $275.00 billion. Caliber has been originating ... [Includes one data chart]

S&P Global Ratings upgraded servicer ratings for Ocwen Loan Servicing to average from below average this week. Ocwen’s stock price increased significantly after the upgrade because of ratings clauses in Ocwen’s subservicing agreements with New Residential Investment. S&P downgraded Ocwen’s servicer ratings in June 2015 and if the ratings weren’t raised by April 2017, New Residential could transfer the subservicing to a different company. As of the end of ...

Ocwen Financial reported a net loss of $87.20 million for the second quarter of 2016, with most of the loss related to so-called legacy issues. A planned settlement with the Department of Justice of two lawsuits involving the Home Affordable Modification Program and FHA mortgages caused $40.10 million in pre-tax losses for the nonbank lender-servicer. The company also paid $28.10 million during the quarter to cover the cost of monitoring settlements involving federal regulators ...

Investors in non-agency mortgage-backed securities serviced by Ocwen Financial released a report this week calling for Standard & Poor’s to upgrade Ocwen’s servicer ratings. In June 2015, S&P downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing’s servicer ratings to “below average,” citing regulatory issues and investor scrutiny along with concerns about internal audits at Ocwen. The downgrade is a focus for some investors because some of the non-agency MBS serviced by Ocwen have ...

Verizon Wireless is preparing to package the payment plans on more than 3.09 million cell phones into an ABS, marking the first time an ABS in the U.S. will be backed by such collateral. The planned $1.17 billion Verizon Owner Trust 2016-1 received preliminary AAA ratings from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s. “It’s the most interesting type of consumer ABS product we’ve seen in a long time,” said Darrell Wheeler, head of research for global structured finance at S&P. “And obviously, with the amount of phones in the market today, it has a lot of potential.” Analysts at Moody’s Investors Service noted...