Officials at Ocwen Financial continue to indicate that the servicer is primed to grow, but the nonbank has been stymied since February due to a voluntary agreement with the New York Department of Financial Services. Henry Coffey, an analyst at Sterne Agee, said there appears to be ample interest from nonbank servicers to acquire servicing along with plenty of interest from banks to shift servicing to banks. However, he said there has been a drought in such transfers ...

The risk-retention standard federal regulators are leaning toward establishing isn’t what was intended under the Dodd-Frank Act, according to one of the main authors of the DFA. Barney Frank, a former Democrat congressman from Massachusetts, said aligning the definition for qualified mortgages with the definition for qualified residential mortgages would be a “grave error.” The DFA required federal regulators to establish standards for QRMs ...

Statebridge Company has received a mid-tier rating for subservicing mortgages from Fitch Ratings. The nonbank servicer was established in 2008 and is owned by FrontRange Capital Partners, along with Kevin Kanouff, Statebridge’s CEO and David McDonnell, the servicer’s managing director.As of the end of the second quarter of 2014, Statebridge subserviced $1.08 billion in mortgages, according to Fitch ... [Includes five briefs]

Subprime auto lending is just about back to the levels seen before the financial crisis, with increased ABS issuance volumes, somewhat higher credit losses and more credit enhancement to offset declining ABS credit quality, according to new research from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. While newer subprime auto ABS have more credit risk, ratings are expected to remain stable. During an S&P webinar this week, Amy Martin, a senior director at the rating service, pointed out...

The conditional default rate, or annualized liquidations, of non-agency MBS loans rose 20 basis points to 4.92 percent in the second quarter, after declining for seven consecutive quarters from 9.76 percent in the second quarter of 2012, Fitch Ratings reported this week. “The recent turnaround in the trend can be partly attributed to a growing portion of bank-held real estate owned properties, which typically liquidate much faster than those that are still in the foreclosure process,” said Fitch. The rate of completed foreclosures to REO property has trended higher for four consecutive quarters. The previous decline in the CDR was driven...

The line of companies rolling out new loan menus for non-qualified mortgages is growing longer each week, but it remains to be seen which firm will be the first to issue a non-agency MBS. Citadel Servicing Corp., Irvine, CA, is working on a bond, but has been noncommittal about when it might come to market – and whether its first deal will be public or private. The privately-held nonbank is now funding more than $15 million a month in non-QM/nonprime products. Meanwhile, Impac Mortgage Holdings – an Alt A lender of yesteryear – has just entered...

Impac Mortgage recently launched a suite of products that don’t meet the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s standards for qualified mortgages. The non-QMs are available via the correspondent channel and are aimed at prime borrowers. The lender refers to its offerings as “Alt QMs,” including a jumbo option, a program for loans slightly outside of agency guidelines and a program that purposefully excludes analysis of a borrower’s tax returns ...

Redwood Trust revved up its latest jumbo mortgage-backed security in a hurry with plans to issue a new deal that includes some loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages. The deal also includes less than 100 percent due diligence. The weighted-average loan age on the $306.05 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2014-2 is 1.4 months, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The latest issuance from JPMorgan Chase included mortgages that were ...

Credit Suisse plans to issue a $367.84 million jumbo mortgage-backed security, according to a preliminary term sheet obtained by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The deal is scheduled to close around July 30. While presale reports on CSMC Trust 2014-IVR3 have not been issued, Credit Suisse expects that the deal will have credit enhancement of 7.25 percent on the AAA-rated tranches, according to the term sheet. Some 56 percent of the mortgages ...

Jumbo borrowers in the market for mortgage financing often decide to work with the bank they already have a relationship with, according to new qualitative survey results from the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Real estate agents participating in the survey were asked what factors drive an affluent homebuyer’s lender selection when opting for mortgage financing instead of an all-cash home purchase. “I’ve found they like to ...