Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been vocal about his views on the GSEs the past week or so, and on May 1, he stated that he wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep sending their profits to the Treasury per the terms of the preferred stock purchase agreement. Mnuchin kicked off the week by speaking at a conference hosted by the Milken Institute in Los Angeles. …

Fannie Mae late last month loosened its underwriting guidelines for borrowers with student loan and other types of debt, and is currently working on pilot programs aimed at helping consumers amass a downpayment. In an interview with Inside MBS & ABS this week, Fannie Vice President of Product Development and Affordable Housing Jonathan Lawless said the government-sponsored enterprise has “more to come” on loosening guidelines. Although he could not provide much in the way of detail, he said...

With domestic economic growth stagnating in the first quarter as consumer debt levels continue to climb, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee this week opted to leave interest rates unchanged and to maintain the status quo when it comes to its agency MBS investment strategy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis put the rate of growth in gross domestic product at 0.7 percent, versus the 2.1 percent growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2016, suggesting that the economic recovery from the Great Recession may be getting long in the tooth. At the same time, on the consumer front, a new study from Northwestern Mutual found...

One of the objectives in resolving the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be minimizing the risk of market disruption in transitioning to the replacement system, according to industry executives. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest proposal for fixing the two government-sponsored enterprises is largely predicated on recent developments in the GSE world, including the first stage of the common securitization platform, extensive product standardization between the two, and the rapid acceptance of credit-risk transfer structures. Those are...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week warned that a large downpayment alone is not enough to prove the ability to repay a non-qualified mortgage when the loan was underwritten based on the consumer’s assets. “As an initial matter, a downpayment cannot be treated as an asset for purposes of considering the consumer’s income or assets under the ATR rule,” said the CFPB. “The ATR rule requires creditors to consider a consumer’s reasonably expected income or assets, ‘other than the value of the dwelling, including any real property attached to the dwelling that secures the loan.’” Further, while the size of a downpayment generally affects the loan amount, the ATR rule already accounts...

A lot of ABS issuers that sat out the final three months of 2016 came back to the market early this year, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. Some $53.38 billion of non-mortgage ABS were issued during the first quarter, a huge 55.9 percent jump from the previous three-month period. The market didn’t quite match the high point of last year, but issuance in the first three months of 2017 was up 23.1 percent from the same period in 2016. First-time issuers and those that didn’t issue in the fourth quarter accounted...[Includes two data tables]

Recent signs of life in the nonprime securitization market have lifted the hopes of participants from coast to coast, but a potential snafu could be in the works in the form of strong investor demand for whole loans. According to some participants, recent whole-loan bids have been as high as 104. “That’s for newly originated non-qualified mortgages,” said one manager who spoke under the condition his name not be used. The implication is...

With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set to lose their capital buffers in eight short months, industry trade groups, think tanks and policy wonks are churning out reform blueprints at warp speed these days even though Congress likely won’t act until sometime next year, if then. Last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association floated its plan to reconstitute the two government-sponsored enterprises – followed by several critiques, not all of them kind – and this week the Independent Community Bankers of America published its proposal. Both plans throw...

Lenders offering non-qualified mortgages that rely solely on a borrower’s assets need to carefully prove the borrower’s ability to repay, according to guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a notice issued this week, the regulator cautioned that a large downpayment alone isn’t sufficient to prove a borrower’s ability to repay a non-QM that is based on the consumer’s assets. The spring edition of the CFPB’s supervisory highlights publication provides insights from ...

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, introduced a revised version of the Financial CHOICE Act this week. The bill would impact many regulatory reforms included in the Dodd-Frank Act, which was signed into law in 2010. Perhaps most significant for the non-agency market, the CHOICE Act would apply qualified-mortgage protections to home loans held in portfolio. Banks offering mortgages with interest-only features, balloon payments or high debt-to-income ratios that don’t currently ...