While the word “subprime” often brings housing loans to mind, a new study by Equifax shows that subprime borrowers seeking access to credit cards and auto financing are having an easier time. Lending to subprime consumers for bank credit cards increased 41 percent on a year-over-year basis, with the bankcard limits at their highest since 2008, while retail credit card limits grew 6 percent. Subprime borrowers now comprise 46 percent of the auto finance market, with loan amounts up 14 percent since 2010. Total new auto loan originations hit a six-year high in December 2011...

A mere 4.7 percent of repurchase demands on loans in non-agency mortgage-backed securities have been resolved, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The $352.7 million in completed repurchases account for a small portion of the up to $64.18 billion in recoveries analysts estimate non-agency MBS investors could see from representation and warranty issues. According to new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, $7.45 billion in repurchase demands on non-agency MBS had been made as of the end of 2011. The first-time reports were filed by securitizers that are still in business and did not include heavyweights such as Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial, IndyMac, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual ... [Includes one data chart]

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller downplayed concerns raised by investors in non-agency mortgage-backed securities regarding the pending $25.0 billion servicing settlement. “The current set of concerns aren’t particularly warranted,” he said this week during a webinar hosted by Inside Mortgage Finance Publications. The Association of Mortgage Investors has asked for a number of changes to the settlement, including a cap on the amount of principal reduction that can be completed on non-agency MBS to meet the participating servicers’ loss mitigation requirements. Miller said the AMI is the only group he is aware of that might challenge approval of the settlement by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “I think that their concerns are not going to be realized ...

Bank and thrift portfolio holdings of first liens increased in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the previous quarter, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. Loan modifications completed by the major bank and thrift servicers during that period also decreased significantly, as portfolio performance has improved. Banks and thrifts held $1.76 trillion in first liens at the end of 2011, up 1.9 percent from the third quarter of 2011. The increase in holdings suggests strong portfolio originations as some banks are allowing their mortgage portfolios to run-off and others are selling delinquent mortgages. At the same time, loan modifications offered by the major banks and thrifts declined by ... [Includes one data chart]

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA accounted for 41.8 percent of the $84.66 billion in lending over the $417,000 threshold in 2011, the lowest share they’ve had since emergency loan limits went into effect in 2008, according to an analysis by affiliated publication Inside Mortgage Finance. The agency share of jumbo production peaked in the second half of 2009 at 53.1 percent.The government-sponsored enterprises and Ginnie Mae financed 36.6 percent of the loans exceeding $417,000 that were originated in the fourth quarter of 2011. That was down from a 42.7 percent agency share of the jumbo market in the third quarter of 2011 ... [Includes three briefs]

Unless Congress takes legislative action by the end of the year, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s “unlimited” pipeline of cash support from the U.S. Treasury will be significantly dialed back, a paper by Deutsche Bank cautions. Although agency mortgage market observers have assumed that the Treasury will extend the taxpayers’ unlimited line of credit to the GSEs before the Dec. 31 deadline, a close reading of the authorizing legislation suggests that the Treasury may not be able to extend unlimited support without the approval of Congress, noted Deutsche Bank.

Mortgage lenders, private mortgage insurers and the government-sponsored enterprises remained at loggerheads on the nagging problem of loan buybacks and MI cancellations as 2011 came to a close. Despite several “global” settlements by the GSEs and halting progress on legal wrangling over representation and warranty claims related to non-agency mortgage-backed securities, a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals there were more unresolved buyback demands at the end of 2011 than there were at the beginning of the year. A clear sign of the persistent seriousness of...(Includes two data charts)

The expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program barely got off the launch pad in December, but more recent data and anecdotal reports suggest that the revamped mission to help underwater Fannie and Freddie borrowers is flying higher in early 2012. Even as the government-sponsored enterprises were reporting a 5.0 percent increase in refinance activity in December, the number of new HARP loans declined by a whopping 35.8 percent from the previous month. HARP activity increased by 3.3 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of last year, but that was significantly...(Includes two data charts)

The recent Servicing Resolution Agreements signed by the nation’s top five mortgage servicers with the federal government and state attorneys general may have been clear on the cost of their key provisions but it is the enormous hidden costs of compliance that could bite the financial institutions in the long run, according to compliance experts. Following the recent announcement of the national servicing settlement, it is impossible to put an accurate dollar amount on the myriad things servicers need to do in order to comply, but experts agree that staffing, training, technological upgrades...

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings says the deal it announced earlier this month to purchase $63 billion of mortgage servicing rights from Aurora Bank FSB, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Bancorp Inc., is part of the servicer’s long-term strategy to drive future growth. Texas-based Nationstar, the home finance unit of Fortress Investment Group, said the purchase represents all of Aurora’s servicing with 75 percent of the loans in non-agency mortgages, comprising approximately $45 billion of Aurora-serviced non-agency loans. Aurora serviced $34 billion of Alt A and negative amortization loans and about $10...