The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a policy clarifying how VA lenders should process and underwrite mortgage loan applications when borrowers assert they are married. The policy, which took effect immediately, requires lenders to accept a veteran’s assertion of spousal status when he or she is applying for VA home loan benefits. The policy came a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court held, in Obergefell v. Hodges, that the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires a state to issue a license for same-sex marriages and to recognize as valid and legal such marriages performed out of state. The SCOTUS decision opened the door for VA to recognize all same-sex marriages regardless of a veteran’s state of residence. The policy also directs VA personnel to apply the same level of scrutiny to all veteran marriages, regardless of whether they are ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Housing Service is seeking comment on a proposed rule that would require servicers to order a “liquidation value” appraisal when estimating a loss claim against the USDA Section 502 Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. The purpose of the revised proposed rule is to help reduce processing time, reduce cost and expedite claim submission. Currently, if a real estate-owned property remains unsold at the end of the prescribed marketing period, the RHS will order a liquidation-value appraisal to estimate the cost of holding and disposing of the property. The costs associated with obtaining the liquidation-value appraisal can then be included in the liquidation costs paid under the guarantee. Liquidation costs include attorney fees, liquidation-value appraisal and foreclosure costs. Annual fees advanced by the lender to the RHS are ...

FHA to Unveil FY 2015 MMIF Audit Results. On Nov. 16, the FHA will release its 2015 annual report to Congress, a document that historically has included the results of the annual actuarial audit of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, or MMIF. Early in the day, Ed Golding, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing, is scheduled to brief reporters on the report and take questions. As reported by Inside FHA/VA Lending, the reduction in the annual mortgage insurance premium earlier this year has put the MMIF on an accelerated path to recovery. But whether the ensuing increase in FHA production – which translates into additional premiums – will be enough to get the fund back to its statutory 2 percent capital reserve ratio remains ...

Publicly traded real estate investment trusts that buy MBS continued to whittle down their positions in government and agency product during the third quarter, a trend that some fear may have no bottom. Market leader Annaly Capital Management trimmed its MBS holdings to $66.3 billion during the period, a 1.9 percent sequential decline, but an ugly 18.6 percent drop compared to the third quarter of last year. It is investing more of its cash in commercial product. Number two ranked American Capital Agency Corp. was...[Includes one data table]

The Structured Finance Industry Group put out the third edition of its RMBS 3.0 “Green Papers” initiative early this week, featuring dozens of model representations and warranties for new non-agency residential MBS, including a range of proposed standardized constructs. “This release substantially builds upon our growing series of Green Papers, which are aimed at restoring confidence to the ‘private label’ RMBS market,” the trade group said. The first and second editions were released in 2014. The 39 model reps and warrants included in the third edition complete...

The hedging results of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – including instruments bought to protect the value of agency MBS – had different results in the third quarter as interest rates unexpectedly declined and stayed low for several weeks. Overall, Fannie booked $2.6 billion of negative charges against the value of its derivatives in the third quarter while Freddie booked a much larger charge on its hedging activities: $4.2 billion. The differential did not pass...

The authors want the Treasury Department to end the quarterly profit sweep and allow Fannie and Freddie to raise about $100 billion in additional capital through several rounds of new common stock sales...

A recent settlement between DBRS and the Securities and Exchange Commission suggests that in the years following the financial crisis, the rating service didn’t dedicate enough resources to reviewing ratings on outstanding non-agency MBS. The SEC found that between April 2009 and February 2011, DBRS employed only one analyst who was principally responsible for the majority of surveillance tasks for the firm’s outstanding ratings for non-agency MBS and real estate mortgage investment conduits. DBRS had more than 5,000 applicable ratings outstanding in that span. The SEC added...

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association recently filed an amicus brief in support of the defendants to reverse a case in which the Federal Housing Finance Agency argued that Nomura Holdings sold shoddy MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the case of FHFA vs. Nomura Holdings, a judge ruled in May, after a three-week bench trial, that Nomura and RBS Securities were liable for the claims brought by the FHFA and knowingly sold bad MBS to the government-sponsored enterprises before the 2008 financial crisis. The MBS were backed by mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of about $2.05 billion at the time of purchase. Nomura appealed...

Federal regulators late last month rejected industry requests that swap agreements entered into by securitization vehicles be exempt from new capital and margin requirements. The three federal banking regulators, along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, finalized a rule that requires covered swap entities to collect and post initial margin to counterparties that are swap entities or financial end users with material swaps exposure of $8 billion or more. The Structured Finance Industry Group had argued...