Two high-profile real estate investment trusts – Annaly Capital Management and New Residential Investment Corp. – appear to be refining their investment strategies these days, heading in different directions in terms of what asset classes they prefer. New Residential is continuing to make huge bets on mortgage servicing rights. According to its just-released earnings statement, the investor is showing no reluctance whatsoever when it comes to size. A new tally from Inside Mortgage Finance shows that New Residential ended the second quarter with $353.0 billion of “full servicing” rights in its possession, up 40.1 percent from March 31. A year ago, the REIT wasn’t...
Ginnie Mae this week announced that processing and issuance of its Platinum MBS are now fully automated – a key step in modernizing the agency’s aging technology and infrastructure. Automated processing will allow current issuers to increase their Platinum volumes as well as potentially draw new issuers into the program, the agency said. Under Ginnie’s Multiclass Securities Program, participating issuers may pool MBS into a single Platinum trust, which issues securities based on the pool. Automation went...
A handful of banks that provide an early look at jumbo origination activity boosted volume in the second quarter of 2017, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. First Republic Bank funded $3.05 billion in single-family originations in the second quarter, up 21.0 percent from the previous period and a 4.1 percent increase from the second quarter of last year. Jumbos account for a large majority of the bank’s total production. “Overall, loan demand is strong, though ...
The first post-crisis prime non-agency mortgage-backed security from Flagstar Bank looks a lot like other deals issued in recent years, including exceptionally strong underwriting standards. However, the bank did break from the pack slightly with a few features in the new issuance. The $443.79 million Flagstar Mortgage Trust 2017-1 received AAA ratings with credit enhancement of 6.25 percent on the senior tranche. The deal was predominantly backed by non-agency jumbos, but ...
Correspondent-originated mortgages were the only segment of the VA market that saw an increase in activity during the second quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Overall, VA loan securitization declined by 1.8 percent from the first to the second quarter of this year. But delivery of correspondent-originated VA loans was up 4.9 percent, while both the retail and wholesale-broker channels saw declines. It was a slightly different picture in the FHA segment of the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities market. Overall volume was up 9.8 percent from the first quarter, with all three channels posting gains. Brokers saw the biggest increase in FHA business, with volume up 14.5 percent, although the correspondent channel also posted a 12.7 percent increase and remained the most active of the three production venues. Loan characteristics held steady in both ... [Charts]
Industry groups representing lenders, real estate agents and insurance providers are urging the FHA to adopt a policy allowing borrowers to purchase private flood insurance on FHA-insured loans. In a recent letter, eight industry groups said FHA’s current stance of accepting only policies authorized by the National Flood Insurance Program contradicts Congress’ intent to encourage the use of private flood insurance and conflicts with current lender requirements. Congress is putting together a comprehensive legislative package of flood-insurance reforms, which would extend the NFIP for another five years and require lenders to accept private flood insurance to meet statutory flood-insurance requirements. The group said FHA’s current policy appears to conflict with lender requirements in the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. A number of home-loan transactions have failed to ...
The Senate Committee on Appropriations last week voted 31 to 0 to set aside $40.2 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Housing and Urban Development for FY 2018. The full committee vote on July 31 followed a subcommittee vote earlier in the week. The Senate funding bill includes $400 billion in new loan commitments under the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, including the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, and $130 million for FHA’s administrative expenses. However, the bill did not grant a HUD request for authority to impose a lender fee to help cover FHA’s information technology upgrades, risk management and quality-assurance improvements. The House HUD spending bill provided $130 million for administrative costs and added another $5 million for IT enhancement. House appropriators passed their version late last month. The Senate bill also ...
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