A lack of formal guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding TRID mortgage disclosures won’t prevent rating services from placing ratings on new non-agency MBS. The rating services are even willing to rate new deals before the Structured Finance Industry Group releases standards for the handling of TRID issues by third-party due diligence firms. However, issuers and investors appear to be less comfortable with liability from the rule the CFPB implemented in October combining the disclosure requirements of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Save for a $331.95 million jumbo MBS issued by Two Harbors Investment at the end of March, no firm has issued a deal that includes loans subject to TRID. On March 18, SFIG proposed...

Mortgage trading desks the past few months have seen a noticeable increase in whole loan trading tied to seasoned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, according to traders interviewed this week by Inside MBS & ABS. Jason Eisendrath, director of loan sale strategies for Mortgage Delivery Specialists, said the sellers include not only money-center banks, but credit unions. “The credit unions, in particular, are holding a lot of [government-sponsored enterprise] paper,” he said. MDS is a part of Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp., New York. It’s...

The alternatives to credit ratings mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act aimed to address contributors to the financial crisis have their own challenges, according to a new report from the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research. John Soroushian, a research analyst for policy studies at the OFR, noted that before the financial crisis, rating services had an incentive to inflate ratings for MBS, ABS and other investments to expand their business. He said rating services were “key enablers” in the creation of MBS and collateralized-debt obligations. “Without ratings, it would have been...

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee concluded its regularly scheduled meeting earlier this week and, to no one’s surprise, decided yet again to keep its interest rate powder dry for the time being. The people who parse FOMC statements for a living derived some nuanced significance from a few wording changes, but are split on whether and when there will be an increase this year. The Fed noted that labor market conditions have improved further even as growth in economic activity appears to have slowed. “Growth in household spending has moderated, although households’ real income has risen at a solid rate and consumer sentiment remains high,” said the U.S. central bank. “Since the beginning of the year, the housing sector has improved further but business fixed investment and net exports have been soft.” Meanwhile, inflation has continued...

Thanks to a resurgence of deals backed by vehicle-related financing, non-mortgage ABS production rebounded strongly in the first three months of 2016, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. But ABS issuance levels came up well short of the volume generated during the first three months of last year, and a few key segments continued to limp along. A total of $41.42 billion of non-mortgage ABS were issued...[Includes two data tables]

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS fell to $189.4 billion in March, the lowest reading of the year, and a sign that liquidity may still be an issue, depending on which seat you’re in. According to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the trading numbers for 2016, so far, haven’t exactly lit the world on fire. In January and February, the readings were $195.1 billion and $201.4 billion, respectively. Last year, the best reading was...

A lender that focuses on investment properties is preparing to issue a non-agency MBS backed by adjustable-rate mortgages on residential and commercial properties. The deal shares some characteristics with non-agency MBS backed by new loans, but it’s different in a lot of ways. The planned $358.60 million Velocity Commercial Capital 2016-1 received provisional AAA ratings this week from Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Residential properties account for 55.3 percent of the collateral, with small commercial properties making up the rest. All of the mortgages backing the planned MBS are for investment properties. Velocity Commercial Capital issued...

Two years after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay (ATR) rule went into effect, residential mortgage servicers have yet to see borrower claims being brought, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings. However, Fitch says the landscape could change as certain non-qualified mortgage loans become more common. But for now, the lack of borrower claims is not surprising, the report said. Most loans, including those eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, meet...

For mortgage bankers, it was another trying week in TRID purgatory: A mid-sized nonbank exited the correspondent jumbo market because of concerns over legal liability and separately it appeared industry trade groups have given up hope that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will issue any type of formal guidance on cures. Meanwhile, the TRID scratch-and-dent market continues to hum along and the consumer watchdog agency has begun examining residential lenders for compliance with the integrated disclosure rule. “TRID exams have commenced...

Closing times for purchase mortgages are starting to recover from delays tied to the TRID disclosure rule, according to results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final rule combining disclosure requirements of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act took effect in early October. Average closing times for various mortgage types increased in the following months, though performance has improved recently, according to HousingPulse. For example, the original closing time for purchase mortgages with a downpayment of at least 20 percent where the loan will be delivered to the government-sponsored enterprises was...