PHH Corp., Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment Management Corp. have quite a bit in common these days: all are large publicly traded lender/servicers that continue to lose money while struggling to find a path to both regulatory redemption and a business model that works. But recent earnings reports and public filings suggest immediate relief looks elusive for all three. For now, Walter – the parent of Ditech Financial, the nation’s 10th largest servicer – appears...

Two high-profile real estate investment trusts – Annaly Capital Management and New Residential Investment Corp. – appear to be refining their investment strategies these days, heading in different directions in terms of what asset classes they prefer. New Residential is continuing to make huge bets on mortgage servicing rights. According to its just-released earnings statement, the investor is showing no reluctance whatsoever when it comes to size. A new tally from Inside Mortgage Finance shows that New Residential ended the second quarter with $353.0 billion of “full servicing” rights in its possession, up 40.1 percent from March 31. A year ago, the REIT wasn’t...

A handful of banks that provide an early look at jumbo origination activity boosted volume in the second quarter of 2017, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. First Republic Bank funded $3.05 billion in single-family originations in the second quarter, up 21.0 percent from the previous period and a 4.1 percent increase from the second quarter of last year. Jumbos account for a large majority of the bank’s total production. “Overall, loan demand is strong, though ...

The first post-crisis prime non-agency mortgage-backed security from Flagstar Bank looks a lot like other deals issued in recent years, including exceptionally strong underwriting standards. However, the bank did break from the pack slightly with a few features in the new issuance. The $443.79 million Flagstar Mortgage Trust 2017-1 received AAA ratings with credit enhancement of 6.25 percent on the senior tranche. The deal was predominantly backed by non-agency jumbos, but ...

Correspondent-originated mortgages were the only segment of the VA market that saw an increase in activity during the second quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Overall, VA loan securitization declined by 1.8 percent from the first to the second quarter of this year. But delivery of correspondent-originated VA loans was up 4.9 percent, while both the retail and wholesale-broker channels saw declines. It was a slightly different picture in the FHA segment of the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities market. Overall volume was up 9.8 percent from the first quarter, with all three channels posting gains. Brokers saw the biggest increase in FHA business, with volume up 14.5 percent, although the correspondent channel also posted a 12.7 percent increase and remained the most active of the three production venues. Loan characteristics held steady in both ... [Charts]

Industry groups representing lenders, real estate agents and insurance providers are urging the FHA to adopt a policy allowing borrowers to purchase private flood insurance on FHA-insured loans. In a recent letter, eight industry groups said FHA’s current stance of accepting only policies authorized by the National Flood Insurance Program contradicts Congress’ intent to encourage the use of private flood insurance and conflicts with current lender requirements. Congress is putting together a comprehensive legislative package of flood-insurance reforms, which would extend the NFIP for another five years and require lenders to accept private flood insurance to meet statutory flood-insurance requirements. The group said FHA’s current policy appears to conflict with lender requirements in the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. A number of home-loan transactions have failed to ...

The Senate Committee on Appropriations last week voted 31 to 0 to set aside $40.2 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Housing and Urban Development for FY 2018. The full committee vote on July 31 followed a subcommittee vote earlier in the week. The Senate funding bill includes $400 billion in new loan commitments under the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, including the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, and $130 million for FHA’s administrative expenses. However, the bill did not grant a HUD request for authority to impose a lender fee to help cover FHA’s information technology upgrades, risk management and quality-assurance improvements. The House HUD spending bill provided $130 million for administrative costs and added another $5 million for IT enhancement. House appropriators passed their version late last month. The Senate bill also ...

Ginnie Mae this week announced the full automation of Platinum securities processing and issuance – a key step in modernizing the agency’s outdated technology and infrastructure. Automation went into effect in mid-July and nearly $1 billion of the Platinum pools have been processed through the MyGinnieMae portal, the agency said in a statement. MyGinnieMae is a self-servicing portal that connects users and enables collaboration and the sharing of organizational knowledge, the agency explained. The year-to-date volume for Platinum mortgage-backed securities is $6.1 billion. Ginnie’s Multiclass Securities Program allows participating issuers to pool some of their MBS into a single Platinum trust, which issues securities based on the pool. A Platinum security is designed to improve liquidity of Ginnie MBS through trades or use in structured finance and repurchase transactions. Previously, Platinum products were ...

The private mortgage insurance industry urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week to consider including the qualified-mortgage standards of the FHA, VA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its assessment of the ability-to-repay/QM rule. In a comment letter, industry trade group U.S. Mortgage Insurers said it would be impossible to perform a full assessment of the ATR/QM rule without considering the different federal agency QM rules. If it does not expand the scope of its assessment, the CFPB should at least consider the impact the rules have on consumers in relation to the agency QM rules. In May, the CFPB notified stakeholders of its plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the ATR/QM rule in terms of its benefits and costs. Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, which established new standards for mortgage lending, including requiring lenders to assess consumers’ ability to repay. The statute also established a class of “qualified mortgage” loans that cannot have certain risky product features and are presumed to comply with the ATR requirement.

NewLeaf Wholesale has announced Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) guidelines for its FHA and VA mortgage products. PACE financing allows homeowners to retrofit their homes to make them more energy-efficient. The homeowner pays the loan as part of their property tax bill. In some states, PACE liens have superior status over all other liens, including a mortgage loan. A PACE assessment is a debt of property, where the obligation is tied to the property as opposed to the property owner. Hence, when the property is sold the new owner assumes the PACE lien. Last year, the FHA and VA issued guidance for approving purchase and refinance of mortgaged properties with PACE liens provided certain requirements are met. One requirement is that past due PACE loan amounts retain a first-lien position and this has raised some concern among industry groups that are opposed to ...