FHA-approved lenders should make sure they leave no stones unturned to ensure that loans submitted for endorsement meet FHA’s strict underwriting criteria. It is the responsibility of direct endorsement lenders to scrutinize every loan for compliance with FHA lending guidelines, including income verification, credit analysis and property appraisals. JPMorgan Chase admitted it failed to do all of the above. Last week, the bank acknowledged it violated the False Claims Act and agreed to pay $614 million in cash to settle government charges it improperly certified poorly underwritten loans for FHA and VA guarantees. The defective loans later ...

Increases to guaranty fees under consideration by the Federal Housing Finance Agency would directly reduce the dollar volume of new agency originations by less than 1.0 percent, according to new research published by the Federal Reserve. The g-fee increases were announced in December by Ed DeMarco, the acting director of the FHFA at the time, partly to increase the non-agency share of mortgage originations. The planned increases were put on hold by Mel Watt, the new director of the FHFA, and remain ...

One of the biggest challenges for nonbanks that want to originate jumbos is finding capital to fund the operations. Two Harbors Investment appears to have found a unique source of capital for non-agency originations: a government-sponsored enterprise. In December, TH Insurance Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Two Harbors, was granted membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines. Officials at Two Harbors said the company appears to be the first real estate investment trust to receive ...

One of the goals of the “servicing alignment initiative” is to limit losses at the GSEs.

The nonprofit Wall Street advocacy group Better Markets filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department this week challenging DOJ’s authority to “unilaterally enter into the unprecedented and historic” $13 billion deal with JPMorgan Chase last fall. In November, DOJ announced the largest legal settlement on record with JPMorgan, which acknowledged making misrepresentations about billions of dollars in MBS sold to investors prior to Jan. 1, 2009. The settlement does not release bank employees from civil charges, nor does it release JPMorgan or any other individuals from criminal prosecution. However, in its complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Better Markets claimed...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw dramatic declines in the number of underwater mortgage refinances they acquired in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Mortgage lenders delivered an estimated 103,878 Home Affordable Refinance Program loans to the two government-sponsored enterprises in the fourth quarter, down 49.0 percent from the previous period. Our estimate, based on loan-level MBS data, supplement Federal Housing Finance Agency figures that have been updated only through November. The final three months of last year produced...[Includes one data chart]

Issuers of non-agency MBS and agency mortgage sellers have addressed most of the legacy representation and warranty issues that have bedeviled the market for the past few years, according to industry analysts. However, repurchase and buyback issues haven’t been completely resolved as investors and regulators make last grasps at recoveries. Analysts at Compass Point Analytics & Trading estimated that the total losses incurred for rep-and-warrant claims from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the FHA and non-agency MBS investors by publicly traded U.S. originators still in existence will total $89.0 billion. The analysts said lenders have charged off or reserved $88.0 billion for such losses. Compass Point said...

Industry participants expect that volume will continue to grow as investor demand for commercial MBS remains strong despite some loosening of underwriting standards.

Less than six weeks into the tenure of the new Federal Housing Finance Agency head, the policy direction of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s regulator remains a mystery, much to the consternation of some industry observers. Since Mel Watt was sworn into a five-year term as FHFA director on Jan. 6, the former North Carolina Democrat congressman has made no public appearances or policy statements, except for canned comments attributed to him in routine FHFA announcements. “Everybody wants...

Although Flagstar led the pack, it was the only bank to rank among the top five sellers of brokered loans.