Today’s reduced liquidity is here to stay because of increased regulation and the unprecedented dominance of the Federal Reserve in the agency MBS market, said the Urban Institute. The top five dealers were responsible for about 55 percent of agency-MBS transactions in 2006, but today’s top five account for approximately 80 percent, Urban Institute analysts said. According to Inside MBS & ABS estimates, the Fed held 27.3 percent of outstanding agency single-family MBS ...

A preliminary analysis of 2015 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reports suggests that loan denial rates declined slightly last year. ComplianceTech, a supplier of fair lending and HMDA technologies for lenders and others, recently released an “EarlyLook” at its online Lending Patterns database of HMDA reports. A group of 175 lenders had a combined $730.9 billion in mortgage originations last year, up 35.7 percent from its volume back in 2014. The 175 aren’t necessarily the ...

Freddie Mac posted a net loss and Fannie’s profits sagged in the first quarter of the year, prompting some industry groups to renew their calls for the GSEs to rebuild capital. A surprise interest rate decline in the first quarter of 2016 resulted in sharply lower net income at Fannie and Freddie. The GSEs booked a combined $7.37 billion in net derivative losses for the first quarter that compromised most of their income from their core businesses. Since 2012, when the two GSEs became profitable again, they have booked $23.46 billion in hedging losses. Both GSE CEOs pointed to volatility in the market as having affected earnings this quarter.

Many mortgage lenders continue to fret about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s integrated disclosure rule, but the bureau’s latest report to Congress suggests they should also pay attention to fair lending issues, including Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data integrity, along with mortgage servicing. “Mortgage lending continues to be a key priority for the [CFPB’s] Office of Fair Lending for both supervision and enforcement, with a focus on HMDA data integrity and potential fair lending risks in…

Industry participants are gearing up for non-agency MBS backed by non-qualified mortgages, but don’t expect a flood of volume anytime soon. Four non-agency MBS backed by new nonprime mortgages were issued in 2015, the largest of which was a $150.35 million deal from Angel Oak Capital Advisors. None of the deals were subject to risk-retention requirements that took effect at the end of 2015 and none were rated. A rating on a non-QM MBS could improve...

Angel Oak Capital Advisors is working on what should turn out to be its second nonprime mortgage securitization of the past six months, a deal that should be similar in size to its first offering of roughly $150 million, Inside MBS & ABS has learned. A source close to the company, who spoke under the condition his name not be used, could not commit to an exact issuance date except to say the security could be issued “soon.” To date, investor interest in the small amount of nonprime/non-qualified mortgage deals that have come to market has been...

Banks generally eased their lending standards for most types of residential mortgage loans in the first quarter of 2016, even as consumer demand for such credit increased, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest senior loan officer opinion survey. During the period ending March 31, a “moderate net fraction” of banks reported having eased standards on mortgages eligible for purchase by the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while a similar number of institutions indicated they had eased standards on “qualified mortgage” and non-QM jumbo mortgages, as well as on QM non-jumbo, non-GSE-eligible and on non-QM, non-jumbo residential mortgage loans. At the same time, banks left...

Federal banking regulators have proposed a “net stable funding ratio” for depositories with more than $250 billion in assets that aims to ensure that large banks’ lending and investing activities are sufficiently supported by sources of stable funding over a one-year horizon. The proposed NSFR would require banks to calculate a weighted measure of the stability of their equity and liabilities over a one-year time horizon, known as the available stable funding, or ASF, and calculate their level of required stable funding (RSF) over the same one-year period. Beginning in 2018, the proposed rule would require...

Private shareholder lawsuits against the U.S. Treasury’s net worth sweep of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits are inching forward, including a squabble over the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s bid to consolidate several cases in one court. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said the proposed transfer would prevent future “copycat” cases and ensure a more consistent ruling across the board by having all of the cases heard in one court instead of scattered in different jurisdictions throughout the country. Private plaintiffs, including Tim Pagliara, director of shareholder group Investors Unite, filed...

Although the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is still months away from officially clarifying certain parts of its complicated integrated disclosure rule known as TRID, the secondary market – and some attorneys – are already breathing a sigh of relief. But the big question remains: how far will the agency go? And will it provide enough clarity to ease the fears of buyers about being sued for monetary errors? The rule, which integrated consumer disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, became...