Another CFPB Official Cashes In as Webster Bolts for Wells Fargo. Brian Webster, previously the originations program manager at the CFPB, has joined a handful of other top officials at the bureau who have leveraged a relatively short stint at the bureau into a private sector gig. Webster, who was only with the agency since January 2013, has left the CFPB to join Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, effective Sept. 15, 2015, where he will serve as senior vice president and lead the lender’s Financial Reform Strategy team in the Business Capabilities Development group. “He will focus on the company’s strategic direction in the evolving regulatory environment, and lead a team that interprets legislative impacts and advises the implementation and delivery ...
Last week, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions was slated to issue a roughly $150 million security backed by nonprime mortgages, an event that promised great things for both the company and the non-agency market. But then nothing happened, or so it appears. Two weeks after confirming to Inside MBS & ABS and another news organization that a new nonprime security was definitely ready to price, the company – and its underwriter, Nomura Securities – has suddenly stopped talking about the deal, both publicly and privately. One source who has held meetings with executives at both firms said...
Documents pertaining to the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the controversial change that strips the government-sponsored enterprises of net worth, will remain sealed, under a September court order in a lawsuit filed by private GSE shareholders. Judge Margaret Sweeney’s ruling in Fairholme Funds v. The United States went in favor of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to keep the documents under “protected information,” denying a motion by Fairholme to release the documents. Charles Cooper, attorney with Cooper & Kirk, the law firm representing the investors, told...
The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee this week fulfilled the expectations of roughly half the Wall Street participants and economists surveyed by financial news organizations and opted to hold the line on interest rates, and to maintain the status quo when it comes to the Fed’s massive balance sheet holdings of agency residential MBS and debt. “We recognize that there has been a great deal of focus on today’s policy decision,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in her press conference after the FOMC’s two-day meeting concluded Thursday afternoon. “The recovery from the Great Recession has advanced sufficiently far, and domestic spending appears sufficiently robust, that an argument can be made for a rise in interest rates at this time. We discussed this possibility at our meeting. “However, in light of the heightened uncertainties abroad, and a slightly softer expected path for inflation, the committee judged...
Meanwhile, there’s a school of thought that believes if and when the Fed hikes, mortgage rates will fall because it will show investors that the central bank is acting to curb inflation.
Nearly a year has passed since the Structured Finance Industry Group released documents relating to the RMBS 3.0 project and the leader of the Treasury Department’s non-agency reform efforts left the Treasury in May. However, at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in Miami, industry participants noted that progress is being made on both initiatives. Panel sessions on reforming the non-agency mortgage-backed securities markets have been a staple at industry conferences since 2008, and some observers question whether much progress has been made. “I think...
Originations of interest-only mortgages increased at a number of lenders in the first half of 2015, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The federal qualified mortgage standard does not allow interest-only terms, and IO production declined after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau QM rule went into effect. Lately, however, many lenders seem to be getting more comfortable with the product. A group of 15 lenders had...[Includes one data table]
The recent dismissal of class-action shareholder lawsuits against Ocwen Financial suggests that it takes more than a sharp decline in a company’s stock for investors to prevail in court. In early September, a federal judge dismissed class-action lawsuits that were filed against Ocwen Financial, Altisource Portfolio Solutions and certain officials at the firms. United Union of Roofers v. Ocwen and West Palm Beach Firefighters Pension Fund v. Altisource were filed on behalf of investors that purchased stock in the companies between early 2013 and December 2014. In that span, the companies’ stock prices declined...
Ginnie Mae securitized $14.2 billion of VA jumbo loans in the first half of 2015, more than double the volume seen during the same period a year ago. VA securitization data for the first six months reflect an upward trend in VA loan originations, which lenders attribute to better outreach to veterans and servicemembers and aggressive marketing strategies. VA jumbo securitization in the first half of the year was up 120.7 percent from the same prior-year period. Volume also was up 13.9 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter. All top-five VA jumbo securitizers reported large gains year over year, but four showed volume decreases quarter over quarter. Third-ranked PennyMac recorded a 3.4 percent gain in the second quarter from the prior quarter. The top five, in sequential order – Wells Fargo, Freedom Mortgage Corp., PennyMac Corp., U.S. Bank and Quicken Loans – accounted for ... [ chart ]
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