The Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking clearance for two information-collection forms that are crucial to a veteran’s ability to obtain or cure a VA-guaranteed mortgage loan. The Office of Management and Budget is currently reviewing the forms. The VA also has published notices in the June 1 Federal Register seeking public comment on the proposed revised forms. Comments for both notices are due July 3, 2017. The first form relates to information a veteran must provide to be exempted from paying a funding fee. Borrowers are required to pay a funding fee to obtain a loan with a VA guaranty, unless the borrower is a disabled veteran receiving VA compensation for his or her service-connected disability. Loans made to unmarried surviving spouses of veterans who have died in service or from a service-related disability also are exempted from payment of the funding fee (regardless of whether the ...
Ginnie Mae is sailing without a captain, a fact that is causing some concern among mortgage bankers and mortgage-backed securities investors. The agency tasked with securitizing government-backed mortgages has been without a president since Democrat Ted Tozer left on Jan. 20, 2017, the same day that President-elect Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Since that time, Nancy Corsiglia, a career Ginnie official, has been acting president. She was elevated from her position as chief operating officer. Industry officials who claim to have knowledge of the selection process maintain that mortgage banke David Kittle, president of the Mortgage Collaborative, is the leading candidate to fill the post with Michael Bright, a director at the Milken Institute, a close second. One source close to the situation claimed that background checks by the Trump White House are likely ...
The House of Representatives late this week passed H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, which would undo a number of changes to the secondary market and to the regulatory landscape that were ushered in by the Dodd-Frank Act. As previously reported, among these are the elimination of the Dodd-Frank risk-retention requirements for ABS other than residential mortgages. Another provision would enable the president to remove the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency before the end of the director’s appointed term, with or without cause. It also would make...
Mortgage real estate investment trusts are expressing optimism about investment opportunities in agency MBS despite tighter spreads on credit assets, according to industry analysts at a recent mortgage finance conference in New York City. Mortgage REITs were positive on investment opportunities and believed that interest rate increases were likely to be moderate in the months ahead, said analysts with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, which hosted the conference. Industry executives, however, noted...
Product valuations are not the most appealing to agency MBS investors right now – not enough to keep them from buying, perhaps, but enough to dry up whatever enthusiasm they might have, according to a new structured finance report from analysts at Wells Fargo Securities. “The core theme in the financial markets right now seems to be ‘reluctant buying,’” the report said. Most of the spread products at this point are trading at multiyear tights. And the bloom may be off the rose when it comes to the so-called Trump trade. “Some of the optimism around fiscal policy post-election that drove risk-premiums tighter is...
A number of lawsuits involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders remain unresolved and a new one just hit the court system last week. Three shareholders filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan arguing that the court should vacate the third amendment to the preferred stock purchase agreement and declare the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency unconstitutional. The plaintiffs also asked...
Trustees for 244 residential MBS trusts have accepted a $2.4 billion settlement offer from Lehman Brothers to resolve repurchase claims related to pre-crisis RMBS transactions that went bad. The trustees filed a notice of acceptance and a motion seeking bankruptcy court approval of the settlement on May 22. A hearing on the motion will be heard by Judge Shelley Chapman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on July 6, 2017. The trustees in the settlement include...
At the very least, these investors want a legal settlement with the Treasury Department over their “takings” claims. But will Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin deal?
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