A total of $13.38 billion of non-agency MBS was issued during the first quarter of 2017, a sharp 67.1 percent jump from the final quarter of last year, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking reveals. Although most of the major segments posted solid increases, the scratch-and-dent market was the star of the show. The $8.09 billion of these deals issued in the first three months of the new year represented 60.5 percent of total production and it more than doubled the fourth-quarter total. The top two issuers of non-agency MBS – Chimera Investment and Cerberus Capital – earned...[Includes three data tables]

After some tightening in the fourth quarter of 2016, issuers of prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities in the first quarter of 2017 largely returned to the underwriting standards typically seen in the sector, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Some $2.60 billion of prime non-agency MBS was issued during the quarter, spread across six deals, including a $1.03 billion issuance by JPMorgan Chase. Underwriting ... [Includes two data charts]

Deephaven Mortgage is preparing to issue a $221.14 million nonprime mortgage-backed security, according to a presale report from S&P Global Ratings. The majority of mortgages in the deal were originated by Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, a firm that has issued nonprime MBS on its own. While loans from 43 lenders will be included in Deephaven Residential Mortgage Trust 2017-1, Angel Oak accounts for 59.6 percent of the contributions. The other correspondent ...

Issuance of mortgage-backed securities backed by newly originated nonprime mortgages increased in the first quarter of 2017, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets. An estimated $411.36 million in nonprime MBS was issued during the quarter, a 23.2 percent increase from the previous quarter. And no nonprime MBS was issued during the first quarter of 2016. Issuance in the first quarter of this year marked the second best quarter for volume since nonprime MBS activity ...

Private capital needs to return to the mortgage market to make the market less dependent on taxpayers, according to JPMorgan Chase. The company dedicated portions of its latest annual report to call for a number of changes that could increase non-agency lending. According to Chase, a “healthy” non-agency mortgage-backed security market hasn’t resumed eight years after the financial crisis because housing finance reform and other securitization standards ...

With the potential for restrictions placed on Ocwen Financial to be removed in the near future, officials at the nonbank stress that Ocwen has transformed compared with when the restrictions were applied. Near the end of 2014, Ocwen agreed to a $150.0 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services. Among other provisions, the settlement required Ocwen to meet certain benchmarks and receive approval from the state regulator before acquiring ...

Small banks reduced the share of non-qualified mortgages they originated in 2016, but some nonbanks are expected to significantly increase their activity in the sector. Non-QMs accounted for 9.0 percent of the mortgages originated by participants in the American Bankers Association’s annual real-estate lending survey. Some 159 banks were surveyed by the trade group and about 76.0 percent of the participating institutions had assets of less than $1.0 billion. In 2015 ...

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]