Rising interest rates, falling prepayment speeds and a strengthening secondary market in mortgage servicing rights combined to push MSR valuations significantly higher during the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data. Banks and savings institutions serviced a total of $4.869 trillion of home mortgages for other investors as of the end of the second quarter. Collectively, they estimated a fair market value of $48.70 billion for their MSR assets ... [Includes two data charts]

Declining origination volume and narrower secondary market margins squeezed mortgage production income during the second quarter of 2013, but servicing income continued to improve, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average firm participating in the MBA’s quarterly performance survey reported pretax income of $3.068 million during the second quarter. That was down 16.0 percent from the first three months of the year and the lowest quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2012 ...

The refinance market may have largely spent itself for now, but the future of the purchase-mortgage market looks bright – and the path to success in that space is mobile technology, according to a leading industry executive. “The mother of all purchase markets is brewing,” said Bill Dallas, CEO of Skyline Home Loans, during a webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance this week. “The market is coming off a purchase bottom and is ready for a shift to purchase.” The Mortgage Bankers Association projects that ...

Thanks to declining refinance activity, the long-awaited slowdown in originations is finally here with mortgage professionals starting to worry about their jobs. For now, it appears that most of the employment losses – at least those at the megabanks – have come in the area of “back office” workers, including loan processors and underwriters. But servicing and due diligence-related positions also have been cut because of improving loan quality. Mortgage banking firms shed 1,200 positions ...

IBM announced last week that it is offering a digital loan-processing platform that will allow borrowers to engage in the loan application process via a smartphone or tablet. Eric Ray, a general manager of IBM’s financial services sector, said the IBM Digital Loan Platform will help lenders connect with borrowers. “We believe delivering a transformational customer experience will differentiate future mortgage leaders from the pack,” he said. “By partnering with IBM, lenders can out-maneuver ...

Impac Mortgage Holdings announced last week that it adopted an agreement designed to preserve the value of its net operating loss carry-forwards. The agreement also included provisions to prevent a change of ownership of Impac stock, causing some investors to raise concerns. The tax benefits preservation rights agreement allows Impac to carry forward net operating losses in certain circumstances to offset current and future taxable income, which will reduce its income tax liability. Impac said it ...

Will private mortgage insurance firms continue to steal market share from the FHA? It certainly looks that way.

Two Harbors revealed that it sold several billions of dollars’ worth of agency MBS in the third quarter as the assets became less attractive with rising rates. The proceeds will be used to buy MSRs.

Not only is Stonegate Mortgage going public, but it plans to issue jumbo MBS as well.

With the deal, $5.3 billion in mortgage servicer advance ABS will have been issued this year, according to the rating service.