Participants in the post-crisis nonprime mortgage-backed securities market have resisted efforts to brand their deals as “subprime” and for good reason: the loans backing these transactions more closely resemble pre-crisis Alt A mortgages. In fact, some of the underwriting characteristics on new nonprime loans are even stronger than the credit quality on pre-crisis Alt A mortgages, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Between ... [Includes one data chart]

Impac Mortgage Holdings has continued to increase its production of non-qualified mortgages and plans to issue a $400.0 million mortgage-backed security collateralized by such loans, according to officials at the nonbank. Impac originated $289.60 million of non-QMs in 2016. In the first half of 2017, the nonbank had $416.70 million in non-QM volume. “We’ve seen a decrease in the conforming market and now month-over-month, we’re seeing an increase in the non-QM market ...

Investors in non-agency mortgage-backed securities continue to grapple with a decision by a trustee to withhold millions of dollars from investors in vintage deals. Industry analysts suggest that post-crisis non-agency MBS include protections against such withholding. At the end of June, Wells Fargo withheld $94.3 million in funds from investors in 20 non-agency MBS that were subject to clean-up calls by New Residential Investment. The deals in question are the subject of a lawsuit ...

Ocwen Financial reported a net loss of $44.44 million for the second quarter of 2017, with legal issues accounting for a large portion of the loss. The nonbank also agreed on terms with New Residential Investment to transfer mortgage servicing rights on non-agency mortgages. Ocwen had a $33.60 million expense in the quarter tied to legal settlements. “We settled additional legacy litigation matters further reducing future uncertainty,” said Ron Faris, the company’s president and CEO ...

JPMorgan Chase is preparing to issue another large prime non-agency mortgage-backed security, according to documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It will be the third prime non-agency MBS from the bank this year. Moody’s Investors Service this week affirmed its assessment of First Republic Bank as a “strong” originator of jumbo mortgages. “First Republic distinguishes itself from other originators in its consistency ... [Includes two briefs]

The jumbo mortgage-backed security market is set for a significant boost as Flagstar Bank will issue MBS. Since 2015, only one bank has issued jumbo MBS: JPMorgan Chase. Other issuers have all been nonbanks as banks have largely opted to retain jumbos in portfolio instead of issue non-agency MBS.Some details about the planned Flagstar Mortgage Trust 2017-1 were revealed this week in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ...

Policymakers should make a number of changes to regulations to entice investors to buy new non-agency mortgage-backed securities, according to officials at Pacific Investment Management Company. PIMCO was a major investor in pre-crisis non-agency MBS. “Unlike the complexities of government-sponsored enterprise reform, a few minor, straightforward changes – some of which can be done through regulation, not legislation – can be made to bring private capital back to the market ...

John Shrewsberry, CFO of Wells Fargo, told the bank’s investors last week that Wells is taking some steps to boost mortgage originations, including an emphasis on interest-only loans. “We are making some modest changes to generate new loan originations, including offering interest-only jumbo mortgage loans to high quality borrowers ...,” Shrewsberry said during Wells’ earnings call. However, when asked for further details, Tom Goyda, a spokesperson for Wells, downplayed ...

Only fixed-rate mortgages were included in prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities issued in the second quarter of 2017, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. It was the third quarterly interval since the first quarter of 2016 that adjustable-rate mortgages and loans with interest-only features were excluded from prime/jumbo MBS. And in the first quarter of 2017, ARMs accounted for less than 1.0 percent of total prime non-agency ... [Includes two data charts]

Loans from more than 100 lenders are in the latest jumbo mortgage-backed security from Redwood Trust but most of the lenders contributed such a small volume of loans to the issuance that they weren’t identified by rating services. Only two lenders have consistently provided more than 5.0 percent of the dollar volume in jumbo MBS Redwood has issued this year: First Republic Bank and Quicken Loans. Loans from First Republic account for 19.6 percent of the $485.25 million ...