It’s been a longstanding and usually treacherous tradition in the mortgage industry that when origination volume starts to sag, lenders begin to expand the credit box. One quarter does not a trend make, but the pattern in credit characteristics of loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suggest that some easing may be underway as the market works to sustain production volume. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of first-quarter sales to the government-sponsored enterprises ... [Includes one data chart]
Decisions by federal regulators have combined to promote issuance of agency MBS over non-agency MBS, a trend that is expected to continue for years to come, according to industry analysts. Panelists at a talk this week sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute cited rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau along with pending rules to set requirements for risk retention on MBS issuance and capital requirements for originations and securitization. “Until you know what the rules of the game are going to be...
Over the past five years, lender captives paid $706 million in losses. Most of these captives were domiciled in the U.S. and sponsored by mortgage lenders, receiving $2.92 billion in ceded premiums.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s lawsuit against UBS Americas and, by extension, more than a dozen other big banks, in connection with non-agency MBS purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will continue after a federal appeals court flatly denied UBS’ bid to dismiss the case. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that denied UBS’ motion to dismiss the FHFA’s suit as time barred. In the summer of 2011, the FHFA filed 18 lawsuits in Manhattan federal court against UBS and other big banks on behalf of the GSEs, alleging violations of the federal Securities Act of 1933 for approximately $200 billion in MBS sold to Fannie and Freddie in the years prior to the mortgage market meltdown. The UBS appeal argument largely revolves...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now earning money hand-over-fist - cash that will wind up in the coffers of Uncle Sam. But is the White House underestimating how much the two GSEs will earn?
Total MBS and ABS issuance rose almost 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012 to $515.3 billion during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking.
Freddie Mac has a new head of single-family: David Lowman, an industry veteran who in the past headed mortgage operations at JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
Fannie Mae’s plan to unload potentially billions of dollars’ worth of non-performing loans has been delayed and may even be scuttled, according to industry officials tracking the project. Fannie has been working on an NPL sale for close to a year, and has even hired an investment banker, Milestone Advisors LLC, to guide it through the auction process. Initially, it had hoped to offer a package of $250 million of delinquent home mortgages for sale to the highest bidder. Although the government-sponsored enterprise would not comment...
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks should devise contingency plans to address the potential meltdown of their various business partners, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA last week issued an advisory bulletin directing the government-sponsored enterprises to each come up with plans for managing their counterparty risk exposures. “The analysis to identify a high-risk or high-volume counterparty should include an assessment of whether the deterioration in the condition of the counterparty or an elimination or reduction in exposure could result in a material loss or significant disruption to operations,” explained the FHFA’s bulletin. The guidelines describe...
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