U.S. auto ABS may have hit a few potholes in recent months, but seasonal factors and investors’ hunger for greater returns is strengthening the sector, especially for subprime deals, according to Wall Street analysts. “Subprime auto ABS continue to benefit from the hunt for yield,” said Elen Callahan and Kayvan Darouian, analysts with Deutsche Bank, in a recent research report. Many deals are oversubscribed and are often upsized, they added. “With spread differentials of up to 600 basis points, depending on issuer and tranche, investors who are comfortable with the asset class’s recent performance are moving from the top of the credit structure, down to the first-loss piece, to pick up yield.” Increased demand for subprime auto ABS subordinate bonds is...

Legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises moved forward in the Senate last week, but industry analysts suggest that complete action by Congress to reform the housing finance system is unlikely until 2017 at the earliest. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs approved S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act, on a 13-9 vote. The bill pushed by the committee’s leaders, Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and ...

The amount of subprime mortgages outstanding continues to decline, with servicers in the sector focusing on loan modifications. An estimated $380 billion of subprime mortgages were outstanding as of the end of the first quarter of 2014, according to a new ranking by Inside Nonconforming Markets. With few subprime originations in recent years, the amount of subprime mortgages outstanding fell by 17.2 percent compared with the first quarter of 2013 ... [Includes one data chart]

More than two out of three non-agency loan modifications started under the Home Affordable Modification Program eligible for principal reduction have received principal reduction in recent years, according to the Treasury Department. Principal reduction for non-agency mortgages under HAMP is not required, but loan owners receive incentives for allowing principal reduction. HAMP servicers handling non-agency mortgages are required to evaluate ... [Includes one data chart]

After years of losses from holdings of nonprime mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported significant income relating to subprime mortgages and Alt A loans in the first quarter of 2014. The income was largely tied to settlements of lawsuits filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency against non-agency mortgage-backed security issuers, and losses from nonprime mortgages were also minimal during the quarter ... [Includes one data chart]

Nonprime lender Citadel Loan Servicing increased its maximum loan size this week to $1.5 million from $1.0 million. Dan Perl, Citadel’s CEO, said the lender is on track to close $14 million in originations in May and $15 million in June. He added that Citadel is close to entering the non-agency mortgage-backed security market. Walter Investment Management revived Ditech Mortgage and the lender will offer jumbos, among other products ... [Includes four briefs]

Melvin Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, revealed a new strategic plan for the government-sponsored enterprises last week that shifts away from the contraction goal set by previous FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco. “I don’t think it’s FHFA’s role to contract the footprint of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Watt said in remarks at the Brookings Institution. “Our role is to maintain an efficient credit market, and as private capital demonstrates that it will come into this market ...

Rating services and due-diligence firms have plenty of time to analyze originators of jumbo mortgages headed to the securitization market, according to industry experts speaking this week at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual Secondary Market Conference in New York. All the rating services are putting greater emphasis on understanding originator business practices as part of evaluating jumbo mortgage-backed securities deals, said Sharif Mahdavian, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s ...

Originations that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages have largely been held in bank portfolios in the months since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule took effect. However, nonbanks are also eyeing the products, and industry participants suggest that non-QMs will eventually be included in non-agency mortgage-backed securities. Laurence Platt, a partner at the law firm of K&L Gates, said a number of hedge funds and investment banks are ...

In a few months, mortgage insurance giant Radian Group will close on its $305 million cash purchase of Clayton Holdings, ending the “independent” status of one of the nation’s largest MBS due-diligence firms. Almost all the larger due-diligence companies have been gobbled up by larger players over the past 18 months. Most of the acquirers have other interests in the residential finance industry and are betting on the eventual return of the non-agency MBS market. That could be...