Limited refinancing opportunities for borrowers already at the lowest end of the interest rate spectrum continue to drive down voluntary prepayments on re-performing loans, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service. “We estimate that only 15 percent of all re-performing subprime loans and 12 percent of all re-performing Alt A loans could have potential refinancing options,” said Moody’s. The borrowers received...

JPMorgan Mortgage Acquisition Corp. is an “above average” aggregator of jumbo mortgages, according to a rating issued last week by Moody’s Investors Service. “JPMMAC’s strengths include the financial strength of its parent company and extensive controls which ensure consistent production quality,” the rating service said. Chase’s jumbo conduit operation buys closed loans from approved sellers and doesn’t originate mortgages. Of the approximately 9,800 jumbos ...

Originations of loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages have been off to a slow start but officials at Impac Mortgage Holdings suggest that non-QM lending is poised for growth. Joseph Tomkinson, Impac’s chairman and CEO, said the government-sponsored enterprises’ dominance of mortgage originations has limited non-QM originations. “We knew going into this that it would be a slow growth,” he said this week during a call with investors ...

Large bank servicers significantly reduced their use of principal reduction loan modifications in the past year, according to new data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Principal reduction mods – which are largely limited to non-agency mortgages – were used in 6.5 percent of the loan mods completed in the fourth quarter of 2014 by eight large bank servicers tracked by the OCC. In the fourth quarter of 2013, large bank servicers employed principal reduction on ...

Non-qualified-mortgages accounted for 1.8 percent of mortgages originated in the fourth quarter of 2014 by 22 lenders surveyed by the National Association of Realtors. NAR noted that most of the lenders in the survey don’t portfolio their originations, which could skew the non-QM share significantly lower compared with lenders that hold non-QMs in portfolio. Some 5.0 percent of originations by lenders surveyed by NAR in the third quarter of 2014 were non-QMs ... [Includes three briefs]

It’s not just structural issues that are keeping investors away from jumbo MBS; they are finding better value in other non-traditional mortgage securities products, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac risk-share transactions and deals backed by seasoned loans. During the fourth quarter of 2014, Javelin Mortgage Investment sold all of its holdings of prime, fixed, senior bonds from new-issue jumbo MBS. The real estate investment trust sold a total of ...

Returns on agency MBS are “uninspiring,” according to Thomas Siering, president and CEO of Two Harbors Investment, which has worked to diversify its assets, including putting an emphasis on jumbo conduit activities and commercial MBS. “We have a diversified business model and our operating platform obviates the need to jack up leverage to generate some return in the agency space because we think we can get attractive returns in ...

The non-agency mortgage business looks attractive to many companies, but it is a difficult market to get into, according to experts speaking at a mortgage servicing conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in New York. Non-agency originations outside of portfolio jumbos have been limited due to certain allowances for the government-sponsored enterprises and the lack of demand for mortgage-backed securities, among other issues ...

Bank and thrift portfolio holdings of first-lien mortgages increased in 2014, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of call reports. Retention of new jumbo mortgages and even some conforming loans helped outpace portfolio runoff. Banks and thrifts held a total of $1.77 trillion in first-lien mortgages at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014. The holdings increased by 0.3 percent compared with the previous quarter and were up ... [Includes one data chart]

WinWater Home Mortgage and Two Harbors Investment are preparing to issue separate jumbo mortgage-backed securities, according to presale reports. WinWater’s deal is set to include some non-qualified mortgages while Two Harbors’ jumbo MBS sticks with the type of mortgages that have dominated jumbo MBS issued in recent years. The $287.74 million WinWater Mortgage Loan Trust 2015-3 is set to receive AAA ratings with credit enhancement of ...