Issuance of expanded-credit mortgage-backed securities is moving at a steady pace, but deal sizes are declining and loan seasoning is increasing, suggesting a slowdown in originations. Redwood Trust is set to issue a $362.7 million deal, according to presale reports by Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service. It’s the fourth expanded-credit MBS of the year from Redwood, including a $520.5 million issuance in May and a $417.0 million deal in July. The average seasoning ...

Chimera Investment is preparing to issue a non-agency mortgage-backed security in which all the loans are eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. The deal is backed solely by mortgages on investment properties, according to presale reports by DBRS and Moody’s Investors Service. The deal follows a similar issuance in May by Flagstar Bank as industry analysts suggest that non-agency MBS offer issuers better execution than delivering some types of ...

JPMorgan Chase is changing the servicing-fee structure in its latest prime non-agency mortgage-backed security. Many of the loans will be subject to a variable servicing fee as opposed to the flat fee traditionally used by Chase and many other issuers. Some 80.1 percent of the unpaid principal balance of the planned $513.9 million issuance is subject to the variable fee, a structure that is more commonly seen on MBS backed by nonperforming mortgages. The servicing fee will ...

New Penn Financial launched a non-agency product for condominiums last week. The SmartCondo offering allows for two non-warrantable features, which are characteristics that exclude the loans from being delivered to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. For example, New Penn will allow a higher portion of commercial space, reduced pre-sale requirements and increased flexibility for single-entity ownership, among other features. The mortgages are available for ... [Includes one brief]

With intense competition for originations of jumbo mortgages, the correspondent channel is experiencing volatility, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. A survey of major players in the market shows correspondent production of jumbo loans rose sharply from the first to the second quarter, though volumes and market share are down on an annual basis. Among a group of lenders that generated $55.77 billion in jumbo originations in the second quarter ... [Includes one data chart]

The amount of jumbo mortgages being handled by major servicers has largely increased in the past year, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Among a group of 30 servicers, only six posted declines in jumbo servicing volume on an annual basis as of the end of June. Among the top 10 jumbo servicers, only Ocwen Financial had a decline in servicing. The company remains under growth constraints placed by regulators ... [Includes one data chart]

Redwood Trust is looking to acquire more jumbo mortgages and many of the nonbanks the firm works with could use some financing, making Redwood’s new funding initiative a good match. During the second quarter of 2018, Redwood deployed $40.0 million in customized financing for nonbanks that deliver jumbos to the real estate investment trust. The initiative is part of a diversification effort. Dashiell Robinson, president of Redwood, noted that the REIT isn’t acting as a ...

Flagstar Bank looks to have found an agreeable due diligence sampling rate for loans in its prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The company is preparing to issue a $476.1 million prime non-agency MBS, according to presale reports published last week. It’s the second issuance in a row from Flagstar where 30.0 percent of the loans were subject to third-party reviews. Only 20.0 percent of the loans in a $704.1 million deal Flagstar issued in April were subject to ...

Rating services are divided on whether the income documentation used by Caliber Home Loans qualifies as full documentation. The differences are apparent in a pending $342.6 million issuance from Lone Star Funds, which is stocked with mortgages from Caliber. According to Fitch Ratings, Lone Star is the only current issuer of nonprime MBS to keep mortgages with nontraditional income-documentation out of its deals. The rating service said 99.4 percent of the dollar volume of the loans ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should remove the cap on debt-to-income ratios that applies to certain qualified mortgages, according to a proposal by the Housing Finance Policy Center. Such a move could boost non-agency lending, according to industry analysts. The CFPB is currently assessing whether changes are needed for QM standards, including potentially addressing the so-called government-sponsored enterprise patch. The patch allows mortgages with DTI ratios ...