Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement amount to ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. to resolve allegations of fraud related to insurance on a collateralized debt obligation backed by subprime mortgages. Details of the Abacus CDO settlement were not disclosed, although ACA initially sought $120 million in damages. First filed in 2011, ACA’s lawsuit accused Goldman Sachs and hedge fund Paulson & Co. of fraudulently persuading it to guarantee payments on the CDO prior to the financial crisis. ACA alleged...

An affiliate of Shelter Growth Capital Partners issued a $113.71 million nonprime mortgage-backed security last week, according to offering documents obtained by Inside Nonconforming Markets. SG Residential Mortgage Trust 2016-1 is the first MBS from Shelter Growth’s SG Capital Partners. Shelter Growth is an investment manager and hedge fund with $1.08 billion in assets under management as of June 1, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ...

Purchase mortgages accounted for a large share of the loans in prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued during the third quarter of 2016, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Purchase mortgages accounted for 67.3 percent of the $4.07 billion in prime non-agency MBS issued during the quarter. That was the highest quarterly share for purchase mortgages since at least the first quarter of 2013. The purchase-mortgage ... [Includes two data charts]

Participants in the non-agency market are concerned that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hasn’t done enough to provide lenders and investors with certainty regarding the liability associated with the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule. The CFPB issued a proposed rule in August that would clarify a number of concerns regarding TRID. But the bureau’s proposed rule didn’t include guidance CFPB Director Richard Cordray had detailed in a Dec. 29 letter to the Mortgage ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently forced “one or more lenders” to take corrective actions regarding income-verification practices for non-qualified mortgages. The CFPB said the lenders weren’t verifying borrowers’ income properly under the ability-to-repay rule. The CFPB found that some lenders offered non-QMs that allowed for “alternative income documentation” for salaried borrowers. The CFPB said the products offered by the lenders relied primarily on the assets of ...

Officials at Ocwen Financial said the nonbank is close to resolving outstanding issues with state regulators which could allow the firm to resume acquiring mortgage servicing rights. However, the non-agency servicing acquisitions market is subdued, and Ocwen is putting an emphasis on originations. Ocwen significantly increased its servicing portfolio via acquisitions until enforcement actions by state regulators limited its ability to acquire MSRs. The consent order from the ...

Two Harbors Investment held jumbo mortgages with a fair market value of $655.80 million as of the end of September. While the real estate investment trust is on track to discontinue its mortgage loan conduit and securitization business, Two Harbors noted that it had outstanding purchase commitments to acquire $61.40 million in unpaid principal balance as of the end of September. Two Harbors said it incurred $1.19 million in costs during the third quarter ... [Includes three briefs]

A total of $12.41 billion of non-agency MBS were issued during the third quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis, but the market continued to rely heavily on a mix of recycled collateral and niche transactions. Overall issuance was up 78.3 percent from the second quarter, including big gains in prime MBS production and re-securitization deals. That still left year-to-date issuance off 43.9 percent from the first nine months of 2015. The huge jump in prime MBS production is...[Includes three data tables]

JPMorgan Chase and Redwood Trust remained the only two active issuers of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities as of the end of the third quarter of 2016, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. A total of $4.07 billion in prime non-agency MBS was issued during the third quarter of 2016, more than five times the volume issued in the previous quarter. However, through three quarters this year, prime MBS issuance ... [Includes one data chart]

The share of adjustable-rate mortgages held in portfolio hit an exceptionally high level in the second quarter of 2016, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. An estimated $53.00 billion in ARMs were originated in the second quarter of 2016 and $4.69 billion in ARMs were included in mortgage-backed securities issued during the period. The ARM securitization rate in the second quarter was 8.8 percent, down from 13.9 percent ... [Includes two data charts]