FHA-approved servicers will now find it easier to file a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage claim under revised HECM rules announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week. The new requirements apply to HECM loans that have reached 98 percent of their maximum claim amount, according to Mortgagee Letter 2018-08. The revised rules took effect on Oct. 22, but HUD will accept public comments for a period of 30 calendar days. Compliance experts say the change is good news for a program that has been experiencing substantial losses and lower volumes. Significant revisions were made last year to cut losses and make the product more efficient, but they have not been enough, said FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery. Under the revised rules, HECM servicers can use alternative supporting documentation in lieu of previously required materials that ...

Certain potential changes could materially affect origination volume and determine the government-sponsored enterprises’ direction going forward, according to analysts. One of those changes could have a significant impact on the FHA market. Wells Fargo Securities analysts recently looked at three potential developments in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac sphere and evaluated their effects on the broader mortgage market. Two of those potential changes – loan limits and guarantee fees – are controlled directly by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, while the third relates to the temporary GSE qualified-mortgage exemption, or “QM patch,” which could affect the FHA market. All three factors loom over the mortgage landscape as the FHFA expects a new director in January 2019, who is likely to be more right leaning and could shift the focus back to shrinking the ...

Reporting on VA Loans Impacted by Natural Disaster. The Department of Veterans Affairs is cautioning servicers against reporting as delinquent VA loans that are impacted by a natural disaster. The electronic default notification (EDN) should only be reported prior to the 61st day of delinquency if the borrower intends to abandon the property or pursue an alternative to foreclosure, according to VA. Cite “property problems” as the reason for default, the agency added. On the 61st day of delinquency, servicers should use “casualty loss” as the reason for default when reporting the EDN. This will help VA identify loan defaults caused by a natural disaster. Texas USDA Guaranteed Housing Program See Increased Volume. The USDA guaranteed single-family guaranteed housing programs in the Lone Star State are experiencing significant volume increases, and consequently, ...

The nation’s major banks had a challenging third quarter as residential production declined at most of the larger shops while nimble-footed nonbanks outperformed, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest home lender and a bellwether for the industry, originated $45.2 billion in residential first liens during the third quarter, a 7.1 percent sequential decline. Its closest competitor, JPMorgan Chase, fared a bit better, funding $24.6 billion of ...

Publicly-traded commercial banks and thrifts saw a modest decline in mortgage income during the third quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports. A diverse group of 23 banks reported a combined $1.926 billion in mortgage banking income for the third quarter, down 1.8 percent from the previous period. Their combined year-to-date profits totaled $6.132 billion, off 13.6 percent from the first nine months of 2017. All but one ... [Includes one data chart]

Wells Fargo was set to price its first post-crisis jumbo mortgage-backed security this week, marking a significant occasion for the sector. Wells is the largest originator of jumbo mortgages and the bank has been holding production in portfolio instead of issuing non-agency MBS. Company officials note that the $441.3 million Wells Fargo Mortgage Backed Securities 2018-1 Trust is in part a test of the MBS market by the bank. The deal is scheduled to close on Oct. 25. MBS issuers generally can't ...

A rise in interest rates on mortgages will help First Republic Bank, San Francisco, gain market share in jumbo originations, according to officials at the bank. Through the first six months of 2018, First Republic ranked fourth among non-agency jumbo lenders, accounting for 3.8 percent of the estimated $140.0 billion of jumbo originations, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets. James Herbert, chairman and CEO of First Republic, noted that some jumbo lenders are reducing staff as originations decline ...

The amount of single-family Ginnie Mae mortgage servicing rights increased a modest 0.9 percent during the third quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Some $1.858 trillion of Ginnie mortgage-backed securities were outstanding at the end of September, a 6.2 percent gain over the previous 12 months. Loans guaranteed by the VA continued to be the fastest growing segment of the Ginnie market. Volume was up 1.3 percent from the end of June, hitting $630.9 billion, an 11.0 percent increase from the same time last year. The FHA segment remained far bigger: $1.114 trillion at the end of the third quarter. However, its growth rate has been slower: 0.7 percent from June and 3.9 percent compared to September 2017. Loan performance deteriorated slightly in both programs. Some 92.9 percent of FHA loans were current at the end of September, down from ... [Charts]

Participants in Ginnie Mae’s single-family mortgage-backed securities program may expect new policy changes, including servicer and credit ratings for the largest issuers, clarification of “appropriate sources of liquidity” and other financial requirements. The changes come as issuer liquidity continues to be a primary concern for Ginnie Mae, particularly with nonbanks now the dominant segment in the single-family MBS program. “We’re working on those policies right now,” said Leslie Meaux Pordzik, Ginnie’s acting senior vice president, Office of Issuer and Portfolio Management, at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in Washington, DC, this week. Nonbanks account for nearly two-thirds of Ginnie MBS issuance and approximately 75 percent of FHA and VA lending. Nonbanks serviced a record 61.1 percent of outstanding Ginnie single-family MBS at the end of the ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has asked the Office of Management and Budget to review a draft final rule that would establish major requirements for guaranteed cash-out refinance loans. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which reformed the Dodd-Frank Act, gave VA the authority to regulate cash-out refis. The agency has 180 days from enactment to promulgate regulations. The final rule sets the parameters of VA cash-out home loans, to include defining net tangible benefit, recoupment and seasoning requirements. The Dodd-Frank reform act and Ginnie Mae have established similar requirements for Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. IRRRLs and, to a much lesser extent, cash-out refis came under scrutiny due to loan churning or serial refinancing. Last year, a small group of lenders targeted servicemembers and veterans with VA loans to ...