The CFPB’s much-criticized arbitration rule issued earlier this year took effect last week, as a successful vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to overturn it failed to generate enough interest and support for a comparable move in the Senate. It’s likely that the massive Equifax data breach and the company’s seeming attempt to manipulate affected individuals to waive their rights to arbitration in order to sign up for free credit-monitoring services effectively killed what little interest senators may have had in following up on the House’s success. The failure is another blow to a political party that ostensibly controls the Senate, the House and the White House but is struggling to accomplish much legislatively, thanks in part to the ...

It Looks Like New HMDA Requirements Will Proceed. Earlier this year, the mortgage industry made a concerted push for either the CFPB, or failing that, Congress, to delay implementing all the new data collection and reporting requirements lenders will face under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act regime.... Feds to Amend CRA Regs to Conform to CFPB’s HMDA Changes. The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Wednesday issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking to amend their respective Community Reinvestment Act regulations, mostly to conform to the changes the CFPB made to Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act....

Fifteen industry trade groups and other organizations sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and GSE regulator Mel Watt late this week, reminding them that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be reformed through legislation and not some type of recapitalization plan where Congress is cut from the equation.“We are increasingly concerned about efforts to derail comprehensive reform,” they write. “We urge both Treasury and Federal Housing Finance Agency to focus on continuing to work with Congress to end conservatorship through comprehensive, bipartisan, legislative reforms.” No specifics are provided regarding the derailment comment. Presently, there are no viable bills before Congress where a consensus on GSE reform might be reached.

Investors Unite, an advocacy group for GSE shareholders, criticized the Mortgage Bankers Association’s plan for GSE reform and stated that the trade group is promoting too-big-to-fail banks. The comments come after MBA President and CEO David Stevens blogged about the nine-year anniversary of the conservatorship earlier this month, and touted the benefits of MBA’s proposal for GSE reform. The group’s plan replaces the implicit government guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an explicit guarantee. “In our plan, private capital would assume more risk, which would lessen the exposure of taxpayers during any economic headwinds,” he said. Stevens also went on to praise...

The supply of outstanding residential MBS in the market continued to grow at a measured pace during the second quarter of 2017, thanks to the robust single-family MBS machines at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. A total of $6.675 trillion of single-family MBS was outstanding as of the end of June, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. That was up 0.8 percent from the end of March, and it represented a record 64.0 percent of outstanding single-family mortgage debt. The Federal Reserve this week reported that home loan debt outstanding rose 0.7 percent to $10.430 trillion during the second quarter. All the MBS growth was...[Includes three data tables]

MBS and ABS investors have more cash than they know what to do with, according to participants at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week. “Liquidity is strong across the spectrum and probably the best we’ve ever seen for structured products,” said Scott Levy, a senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities. He noted that three years ago, some of the securities the firm was involved with had 15 investors; now, similar deals might have 70 investors. “There’s a lot of demand and a lot less supply,” Levy added. More than 4,100 people registered...

Issuance of non-agency MBS backed by newly originated home loans remains well below levels seen before the financial crisis. While new regulations have stopped some pre-crisis loan types from being originated, industry participants suggest that other major factors are also limiting the supply of loans available for MBS. Chris Helwig, a managing director at Amherst Pierpont, noted that banks are competing for prime jumbos and holding them in portfolio, and many borrowers who previously might have received subprime mortgages opt for FHA loans. “All that is left for non-agency MBS is...

The great unwinding of the Federal Reserve’s massive intervention in the MBS market post-financial crisis is set to begin soon. This week, surprising no one, the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee announced it will start to normalize its huge balance sheet next month along the parameters it first outlined in June. From October through December, the decline in the Fed’s securities holdings will be capped at $6 billion per month for Treasuries and $4 billion per month for agency MBS. Next year, the declines will gradually increase to $30 billion a month for Treasuries and $20 billion a month for MBS. Fed Chair Janet Yellen reiterated...

Ginnie Mae and the Department of Veterans Affairs have created a joint task force to deal with improper early refinancing of VA loans – a practice the agencies thought they had eliminated but which has reemerged in the last couple of weeks. The task force will be monitoring closely monthly VA refinancing data and will develop additional policies to augment the current policy, which Ginnie, in consultation with the VA, issued last year to curb churning of VA loans in its MBS. Responding to concerns raised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, acting Ginnie President and Chief Operations Officer Michael Bright acknowledged...

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS totaled a tepid $199.8 billion in August, the lowest reading since May, according to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Then again, volume wasn’t too far off trading activity in the prior two months, which came in at $200.5 billion and $200.9 billion. It appears that investors haven’t had...