The Federal Housing Finance Agency overstepped its authority when it proposed excluding captive insurers from obtaining membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, according to captive insurance companies. Real estate investment trusts – including Redwood Trust and Two Harbors Investment – have used captive insurance companies to gain access to FHLBank financing. “The proposed membership regulations would needlessly exclude an entire category of statutorily permitted members that can further the FHLBank System’s mission as the mortgage finance market continually evolves,” Redwood Trust said in a comment letter to the FHFA. The FHFA issued...
Buybacks and indemnifications by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sellers fell sharply during the third quarter of 2014, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter. The two government-sponsored enterprises reported a total of just $543.1 million of repurchases and indemnifications of securitized mortgages in disclosures filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That was down a whopping 68.7 percent from the second quarter and was, by far, the lowest quarterly buyback total since the GSEs started disclosing such activity in early 2012. In fact, Fannie and Freddie withdrew...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to unveil final rules on Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements (PMIERs) by the end of March, but there could be a surprise in the works. According to industry lobbyists and MI executives interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance this week, the FHFA may publish the PMIER rules in tandem with new guidelines on loan-level price adjustments or LLPAs. “The MI industry is...
Now that the hurrahs and uproar over FHA’s reduced annual premiums have died down, analysts are having mixed views regarding its short- and long-term effects on private mortgage insurers. Some analysts predict FHA’s 50 basis-point reduction of the annual mortgage insurance premium charged on 30-year forward loans should have a modest impact on private MI business. The cut should benefit the lower FICO brackets – borrowers with credit scores of 679 and lower – a segment in which private MIs write little business, they suggest. “We believe...
Meanwhile, JPM marked down the asset value of its residential servicing portfolio to $7.436 billion at Dec. 31, 2014, a 10 percent reduction from 3Q14.
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