The lion’s share of mortgage repurchase activity involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the third quarter of 2014 continued to involve loans securitized before the two government-sponsored enterprises were put in conservatorship back in 2008, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. At the same time, however, the 2013 book of business is getting a lot more attention at the two GSEs. Although Fannie and Freddie wrapped up their reviews of ... [Includes two data charts]

Investment banking firm FIG Partners, based in Atlanta, recently inaugurated a new whole-loan trading capability for small to mid-tier community and regional banks. The firm will now buy or sell performing and non-performing residential mortgages as well as commercial real estate, consumer and other types of loans for its bank and investor clients. Company officials say their new whole-loan trading capabilities complement the firm’s securities trading operations. The new platform ...

With mortgage originations expected to be relatively flat in the new year, one might think it would be a buyer’s market for mortgage companies. But not so, according to investment bankers interviewed by Inside Mortgage Trends. “There are far more buyers than sellers at this point in time,” said Larry Charbonneau, a principal in Charbonneau & Associates. Attending a recent trade show catering to independent mortgage banking firms, Charbonneau said he was approached by ...

Mortgage hiring should be somewhat brisk in 2015 as lenders of different sizes plan to expand their sales forces. Prospects are especially positive for mortgage professionals in California, New England, and the Southeast, according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Trends. Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest nonbank originator, hopes to hire approximately 500 new employees in the coming year, including loan officers and underwriters, said company spokesman Chris Smith ...

After agreeing to a $150 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services, Ocwen Financial said the company will shift its business strategy away from owning mortgage servicing rights for agency mortgages. In a call with investors in late December, Ronald Faris, Ocwen’s president and CEO, said the nonbank is positioned for “disciplined growth” in the future. “We continue to believe that we have attractive opportunities for earnings growth,” he said. In the past three years ...

Offering “portable” mortgages could increase the potential for homeownership by eliminating the “resetting of the clock” that occurs every time a borrower moves, according to Jeffrey Lubell, director of housing and community initiatives at Abt Associates. A portable mortgage allows a borrower to keep his or her mortgage even if he moves to a different property, helping to build equity. The loans are available in Canada and Europe but haven’t caught on in the U.S. “Few policies would ...

Most of the mortgage fraud investigations in 2013 that involved industry professionals were about misrepresentations on loan documents, evidence that the market remains fertile for fraud, according to a new LexisNexis report. Focusing on proven incidences of fraud, the report found that the share of loans investigated in 2013 for misrepresentation on the credit report, credit history or references rose to 17 percent from 5 percent in 2012. Notably, property valuation fraud ...

Commercial banks and thrifts sold some $175.6 billion of home mortgages during the third quarter of 2014, a healthy 25.4 percent increase from the prior quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. Despite the bump in loan sales and mortgage originations, the banking industry reported a modest 4.9 percent drop in mortgage-banking income during the third quarter. And there was relatively little left in the tank as the market ... [Includes one data chart]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency in December cleared the merger of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle and the FHLB Des Moines, which will create the largest FHLB by membership, serving 1,500 institutions in 13 states. The first voluntary merger in the FHLB System’s 82-year history has been approved by the boards of both FHLBs and must now be voted on by members of the two institutions, which will occur in January and February. “This is a critical milestone in the ...

The outstanding supply of agency single-family MBS continued to grow at a subdued pace during the third quarter of 2014, and the biggest investor classes did most of the heavy lifting funding the market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. On the supply side, there were $5.632 trillion of single-family MBS guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae outstanding at the end of September. That was up just 0.4 percent from the previous quarter but had enough growth rings to show a 1.2 percent gain from a year ago. As has been the case for the past few years, the Ginnie MBS market grew...[Includes two data chart]