It hasn’t happened often in recent years, but commercial banks and thrifts were actually servicing more home mortgages for other investors at the end of September than they had at the midyear point. A new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends of bank call reports shows the industry was servicing $3.652 trillion of home loans for other investors at the end of the third quarter. Most of this SFO business is tied to mortgage-backed securities pools, and the ... [Includes one data chart]

Mortgages with high home price-to-income ratios tend to perform worse than mortgages with lower PTI ratios, according to economists at the Federal Reserve. The analysts suggest that PTI ratios are a helpful tool for gauging mortgage risk by tracking housing affordability. “Banks that have greater exposure of mortgages to high PTI regions have higher mortgage delinquency and charge-off rates and significantly higher probabilities of failure, even after controlling for ...

Ginnie Mae has issued expanded guidelines to protect veterans and investors from harmful loan churning and rapid prepayments in mortgage-backed securities. The changes, along with additional measures under consideration by a joint Ginnie Mae/VA refinance task force, are aimed at ensuring continued strength and liquidity of the Ginnie Mae MBS program, said Michael Bright, the agency’s acting president. The latest guidelines expand on an initial measure Ginnie implemented requiring six-months of seasoning of VA loans before they can be refinanced and delivered into Ginnie MBS pools. However, some lenders have found ways around the measure and have continued their questionable lending practices, said Bright during recent testimony before a House Financial Services subcommittee. Churning is both illegal and unethical because it preys on unsuspecting borrowers, who are pressured by ...

Congress on Thursday passed a stopgap-spending bill to prevent a potential government shutdown and to give lawmakers time to negotiate crucial issues. The House voted 235-193 to pass the measure. A short time later, the Senate quickly approved it 81-14. The temporary spending bill will keep the government running through Dec. 22. The continuing resolution or CR, that has kept the government open would have expired on Dec. 8. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to adjourn on Dec. 15. Congress will need to pass a final appropriations bill or another continuing resolution to keep the government operating after Dec. 22. Despite differences over tax reform, FY 2018 budget, immigration, health care and other issues, lawmakers do not want a shutdown, mortgage industry sources said. Republicans, in particular, hope to enact their $1.5 trillion tax package by Christmas. On the other hand, ...

VA posted an 11.6 percent increase in originations in the third quarter, reversing a downward slide that began in early 2017. VA lenders ended the period with $45.5 billion in new originations, up from $40.8 billion in the previous quarter. The nine-month VA volume totaled $129.1 billion with purchase mortgages providing a strong boost. Streamlined refinancing, or Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans, accounted for 16.8 percent of VA loans originated and securitized during the nine-month period. The top five VA lenders in sequential order – USAA, Veterans United Home Loans, Quicken Loans, Navy Federal Credit Union and Freedom Mortgage – ended the third quarter with a combined $11.05 billion in originations and a 24.7 percent share of the market. Top-ranked USAA reported a 17.0 percent drop in VA lending in the third quarter from the previous quarter. Over the nine-month period, it racked up ... [charts]

Officials at HomeStreet Bank defended the bank’s mortgage business activities this week after facing criticism from one of the largest shareholders in the company.

Mortgage bankers saw modest gains on both sides of their business during the third quarter of 2017, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports from a dozen publicly held companies.

Commercial banks and savings institutions are not major investors in the non-mortgage ABS market, and their holdings slipped again during the third quarter of 2017, according to a newInside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis.

The vast majority of commercial banks and savings institutions that do mortgage banking – either directly or through a subsidiary – generated a profit from the business during the third quarter, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends of bank call reports.

California is a jumbo mortgage gold mine that’s dominated by banks, giving Banc of California an enviable starting point. BoC is also differentiating itself by focusing on non-qualified mortgages and avoiding the retail channel. BoC contributed $122.9 million of jumbo loans to a new mortgage-backed security from JPMorgan Chase. Selling loans into the securitization market is a significant shift for BoC, which had previously only contributed eight mortgages to a jumbo MBS issued in 2014 ...