Two large acquisitions of mortgage servicing rights have been put on hold by regulators at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Ginnie Mae, causing consternation in the secondary market. Moreover, according to trade group officials and advisors in the space, a deal needs to be struck between regulators and the industry that spells out the rules of the road when it comes to transferring MSRs from banks to their ultimate destination at nonbanks that are hungry for both product and market share. “We need an environment where servicing can be transferred...
Declaring this week that “inaction is simply not an option,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said that the Senate’s pending bipartisan housing finance reform bill represents “the single best chance” to overhaul the mortgage-finance market this decade. Speaking in New York at an event co-hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, Donovan said the Obama administration is squarely behind the legislative proposal by Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID. “Despite its imperfections, does...
Two of the top officers have left Mortgage Resolution Partners, the company that rattled Wall Street by trying to convince hard-pressed local governments to use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages. The latest to depart is John Vlahoplus, who held the title of chief strategy officer. Vlahoplus, who could not be reached for comment, has taken a position with Credit Suisse. The other, more crippling departure is that of Graham Williams, CEO of the San Francisco-based private equity firm. He told Inside MBS & ABS that he officially cut ties with the company at the end of March. Steven Gluckstern, who serves as chairman of MRP, took on the title of acting CEO. At press time, he could not be reached for comment. Under the MRP scheme, local governments would offer...
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae saw much lower business volume in both purchase-money mortgages and refinance loans during the first quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. The agencies securitized a total of $95.9 billion of purchase mortgages during the first three months of the year, down 28.8 percent from the previous quarter. That was a steeper decline than in refinance volume, which slid 24.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013. Compared to a year ago, the purchase market continued...[Includes three data charts]
The National Association of Realtors also urged the FHA to use its “granted discretion” to adjust loan limits for areas that have experienced significant declines.
FHFA Director Mel Watt may have something to say soon on the topic of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan level price adjustments, commonly known as LLPAs. As for the GSE 'Scorecard'...
FHA Commissioner Carol Galante quashed any industry hope of seeing mortgage insurance premiums lowered at this time, saying that while the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund has shown some improvement, full recovery is still far off. In remarks during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Advocacy Conference this week, Galante also defended a provision in the president’s FY 2015 budget proposal seeking statutory authority for the FHA to collect an administrative fee from lenders to help fund quality control improvements. Both issues are high up on the MBA’s lobbying priorities as members gathered in Washington, DC, this week to meet with lawmakers and their staff to discuss FHA and other key industry concerns. Galante said the Department of Housing and Urban Development is currently focused on strengthening the MMI Fund and expanding access to credit for all qualified borrowers. The FHA raised pricing five times from ...
The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide a transparent process by which interested parties could request a recalculation of the FHA loan limits and present supporting evidence. By statute, maximums for FHA loan limits in high-cost areas were reduced to $625,500 from $729,750 at the beginning of the year for one-unit residential properties, the same maximum loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for similar properties in high-cost areas. The MBA said HUD made further reductions in FHA FY 2014 loan limits in approximately 300 counties and county equivalents across the country, with many experiencing significant reductions. The trade group believes these changes were not required by statute. To the extent that the loan-limit reductions in those areas were discretionary, the MBA strongly urged HUD to moderate its ...
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