The trend reflects the surge in VA home loan originations over the past few years at a time when the FHA has lost market share to private mortgage insurers.

The Blackstone Group, an investment banking powerhouse, has purchased Gateway Funding Services, Horsham, PA, and plans to use the nonbank as its platform to ramp up originations, servicing investments and MBS issuance, according to industry officials familiar with the situation. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press this week, the Blackstone Group had not responded to a media inquiry on the matter. Gateway also could not be reached, but according to ...

Vintage prime adjustable-rate mortgages went delinquent at a rate 30 percent higher when they were securitized privately, according to an economist with the Federal Reserve System. The study was based on mortgages originated in 2005 and 2006, at the height of the aggressive underwriting in the non-agency mortgage market. “We find that private-securitized loans perform worse than observably similar, non-securitized loans, which provides evidence for adverse selection ...

Ocwen Financial had a rough 2014, but officials at the nonbank suggest the company will be profitable in 2015 and beyond. Ocwen faces a number of outstanding issues, including questions from an independent auditor regarding the nonbank’s ability to operate as a going concern. Ocwen reported a preliminary net loss of $546.29 million in 2014 compared with net income of $310.42 million in 2013. Officials at the nonbank said the loss for 2014 incorporates the impact of ...

First Horizon National Corp. has announced an agreement in principle with the federal government to settle potential claims related to the underwriting and origination of FHA-insured mortgages during the run-up to the financial crisis. Disclosed in a regulatory filing, the agreement between First Tennessee Bank and the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development covers FHA loans originated from 2006 through 2008, which have gone to claim ...

Certain factions of the industry want the CFPB to develop a plan to provide implementation support during a restrained enforcement period following the Aug. 1 effective date.

Some lenders are swamped with refis...

Meanwhile, Citigroup continues to see its servicing “for others” portfolio shrink...

In general, depositories have not been active buyers of mortgage companies, though that’s starting to change somewhat.

Is the bloom off the rose in the single-family home rental market? Some institutional investors are shedding assets.