The nonprime mortgages held by the government-sponsored enterprises continue to run off, though the GSEs have sold some of their holdings of nonprime mortgage-backed securities in the past year, according to industry analysts. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held a combined $238.83 billion in nonprime mortgages as of the end of the third quarter of 2014, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Purchased/guaranteed mortgages ... [Includes one data chart]

Prohibiting real estate investment trusts from joining the Federal Home Loan Bank system would hurt efforts to revive the non-agency market, according to two REITs that have gained access to FHLBank financing. Officials at both Two Harbors Investment and Redwood Trust said FHLBank advances helped the REITs fund originations of jumbo mortgages in the third quarter of 2014. Both companies recently gained access to FHLBank advances via captive insurance entities ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to trim their retained holdings of MBS and unsecuritized mortgages in keeping with their conservatorship mandate as the two government-sponsored enterprises each posted a profit during the third quarter of 2014. The two GSEs ended September with a combined $851.71 billion in mortgage-related holdings, down 2.4 percent from the previous quarter. Compared to a year ago, their combined mortgage portfolio was down 16.0 percent and down 46.5 percent from the $1.592 trillion the two firms held in the fourth quarter of 2008 shortly after being placed in government conservatorship. One of the conditions of the conservatorship the GSEs entered six years ago was...[Includes one data chart]

Ally Financial recently received subpoenas and document requests from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice over a broad array of lending and securitization activities, the company revealed in a recent Form 10-Q disclosure filed with the SEC. “The subpoenas and document requests from the SEC include information covering a wide range of mortgage-related matters, and the subpoenas received from the DOJ include a broad request for documentation and other information in connection with its investigations of potential fraud and other potential legal violations related to MBS, as well as the origination and/or underwriting of mortgage loans,” the company said. In addition, Ally recently received...

Servicers are increasingly executing their clean-up call options on vintage non-agency MBS, paying off investors at par and realizing profits by liquidating real estate owned properties. This year has been the most active year for clean-up calls on non-agency MBS since 2007, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. And that’s before the largest servicer of subprime MBS has taken any significant action on clean-up calls. In August, Ocwen Financial announced...

Professional money managers see the U.S. economy on a sounder footing over the next 12 months, with expectations of little or no gain among mortgage-related assets over the next year, according to a new Fitch Ratings survey of fixed-income investors. Opinions about the credit conditions of mortgage investment vehicles in the near term mostly focused on modest, rather than severe, deterioration. In this segment, investors were mostly optimistic about prime mortgage-backed bonds. Overall, the survey found...

Pricing for jumbo mortgage-backed securities has improved in recent months, prompting an increase in issuance from some firms, but bank demand remains robust. “Although the difference has narrowed, our whole-loan sale execution for most jumbo loans continues to be more attractive than our securitization execution as a result of strong demand from banks,” Brett Nicholas, president of Redwood Trust, said this week during a call with investors. In the third quarter of 2014, Redwood issued ...

Two Harbors Investment is working to increase its non-agency conduit activity, launching a nonprime product along with a low-downpayment jumbo for high-quality borrowers. Officials at the real estate investment trust said Two Harbors also plans to be a regular issuer of non-agency mortgage-backed securities. “It has been clear to us for some time that the market has a need for products like this, and we are excited to be able to extend our reach as a capital provider to these segments ...

With growth via acquisitions of servicing portfolios on hold, Ocwen Financial is pursuing a number of different initiatives, including originations of non-agency mortgages. The nonbank primarily known for servicing high-touch mortgages is currently testing originations of jumbo mortgages and working toward originating nonprime mortgages. “The business is building a robust new product pipeline and is currently in the market testing a new jumbo mortgage product,” Michael Bourque ...

Originations by nonbanks of loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages are off to a slow start, according to industry participants. “There is obviously a lot of noise in the area, a lot of announcements about people getting involved. And from what we have seen, there is nothing of any size and replicable flow that seems readily securitizable,” Michael Commaroto, CEO of Apollo Residential Mortgage, said this week during a call with investors. He said ...