Congress should make a number of changes to the ability-to-repay rule that would encourage more non-agency lending, according to the Consumer Mortgage Coalition. The CMC represents lenders, servicers and service providers. “The liability for mortgage lending is now so severe that private capital has left the mortgage market and has stayed away,” Anne Canfield, executive director of the CMC, said in testimony last week submitted to a subcommittee of the ...

Flagstar Bancorp announced that it’s set to acquire certain assets of Opes Advisors, including the nonbank’s origination unit. Opes focuses on purchase mortgages on the west coast through the retail channel. Opes was the 39th-ranked jumbo lender in 2015, with $1.02 billion in jumbo originations, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Jumbos accounted for 40.6 percent ... [Includes three briefs]

Originations of interest-only mortgages increased in 2016 compared with the previous year, based on volume from 12 lenders tracked by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The group originated $40.52 billion in IOs during the year, a 36.5 percent increase from the previous year. All but one of the lenders increased their IO production compared with 2015, with many posting gains higher than 50.0 percent. IOs can’t receive qualified-mortgage status ... [Includes one data chart]

Issuance of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities increased by 65.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the previous quarter, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Some $2.60 billion in prime non-agency MBS were issued in the first quarter. Volume was boosted by relatively strong demand from investors, the emergence of a new participant and the return of a firm that has largely ... [Includes one data chart]

Lenders originating so-called conforming-jumbo mortgages that are eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises continue to see better execution by delivering those loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac instead of packaging them in non-agency mortgage-backed securities. However, conforming jumbos accounted for 36.3 percent of the $1.03 billion non-agency MBS JPMorgan Chase issued in February. And other banks could follow in placing such ...

Annaly Capital Management is buying more non-agency whole loans, including non-qualified mortgages. The large real estate investment trust is using infrastructure it acquired from Hatteras Financial last year to complete the whole-loan expansion. Annaly’s residential credit group invests in non-agency mortgage assets, including whole loans and mortgage-backed securities. The group had $2.50 billion in assets as of the end of 2016, with whole loans accounting for ...

A proposal in Congress to define all mortgages held in portfolio as qualified mortgages has some bipartisan support, but lenders are divided on the matter. “I caution the use of portfolios to add loans that are not standard,” said David Motley, president of Colonial Companies and chairman-elect of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “The rules of the qualified mortgage, I believe, should be the same for everybody.” He made the remarks this week at a hearing by the ...

An affiliate of Shelter Growth Capital Partners issued a $119.87 million mortgage-backed security backed by newly originated nonprime mortgages this week. It’s the second nonprime MBS from SG Capital Partners, following a $113.71 million deal in October. The new issuance is fairly similar to the previous MBS from the firm, including relatively large loan balances and many adjustable-rate mortgages. SG Residential Mortgage Trust 2017-1 included mortgages with an ...

Originations of adjustable-rate mortgages increased in 2016 but didn’t keep pace with the overall growth in mortgage originations during the year, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. An estimated $212.0 billion in ARMs were originated last year, up 6.5 percent from 2015. ARMs accounted for 10.3 percent of total originations in 2016, down from an 11.5 percent share the previous year. ARM originations also declined ... [Includes one data chart]

A U.S. bankruptcy fudge slapped Bank of America with $45.0 million in punitive damages last week for its handling of a mortgage foreclosure. “Franz Kafka lives,” Judge Christopher Klein wrote in his opinion, citing the author known for writing about complex or illogical situations. “This case reveals that he works at Bank of America.” The lawsuit, Sundquist v. BofA, centers on a jumbo mortgage originated in 2008 by a broker and acquired by Countrywide Home Loans ...