Production of loans with a Department of Veterans Affairs guaranty increased 44 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the same period a year ago, thanks to strong refinance activity during the holidays, according to an agency spokesman. John Bell, assistant director for loan policy and valuation with the VA Home Loan Guaranty Service, said VA streamline refinance activity rose 18 percent year over year as more veterans took advantage of lower interest rates and lower downpayment in the fourth quarter. He said the VA is still in the process of collating data, declining to give further details. Nonetheless, VA production in the fourth quarter was fueled...

Freddie Mac earned just $227 million in the fourth quarter, blaming the 90 percent sequential decline in profits on derivative losses of $3.4 billion. In a briefing with the media, Freddie CEO Don Layton went out of his way to explain that when interest rates eventually rise, the government-sponsored enterprise could benefit greatly. “I wish that accounting was more tied to economics but it’s not,” he said. Layton stressed...

Proponents of the non-agency MBS market continue to work on initiatives to revive the market, with progress somewhat slow but steady. The Treasury Department and the Structured Finance Industry Group are facilitating separate efforts to entice investors to buy new non-agency MBS. At the ABS Vegas conference sponsored by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network this week, Olga Gorodetsky, a senior policy advisor at the Treasury, said there’s no timeframe for when the benchmark non-agency MBS the Treasury is trying to facilitate might be issued. “It will be market driven,” she said. Gorodetsky said...[Includes one data chart]

Standard & Poor’s emerged as the top rating service in both non-agency MBS and non-mortgage ABS securitizations in 2014, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking. S&P rated $8.91 billion of non-agency MBS last year, or 25.4 percent of total issuance. Rating information is not available on most scratch-and-dent transactions and re-securitizations that are typically issued as private placements. S&P’s market share was down from 40.0 percent of non-agency MBS issued in 2013, when there were more transactions with multiple ratings. DBRS, which reports its ratings on re-securitizations, actually was involved...[Includes two data charts]

Were Bank of America, Citi and Chase manipulated into making donations to Democrat-leaning housing advocacy groups as part of their recent mortgage settlements with the Department of Justice? That seemed to be the implicit question underlying the grilling of a key Justice Department official by Republican members of a House Judiciary subcommittee during a hearing this week that focused on the donations the three mega-banks were directed to make to housing counseling groups as part of their $36.6 billion settlement with the DOJ. “The concern is...

The two best things about the mortgage origination market in the fourth quarter were that it meant 2014 wasn’t as bad as once feared, and that refinance demand had picked up. But a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking reveals two other positive trends: the jumbo and home-equity markets continued to gain strength in the final three months of 2014. Lenders originated an estimated $67 billion of jumbo mortgages during the fourth quarter, up 3.1 percent from the previous period. Home-equity production bounced 5.0 percent higher, to an estimated $21 billion. Neither gain was...[Includes two data charts]

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro faced the wrath of the GOP majority during a House Financial Services Committee hearing this week on the state of the FHA, focusing on the agency’s recent decision to cut annual mortgage insurance premiums. While Castro may have been warned about stepping into the lion’s den, he appeared ill-prepared for the confrontation with Republicans, unable to answer basic questions such as FHA’s net income, overall delinquency rate and the serious delinquency rate for 2014. Democrats, on the other hand, helped the embattled secretary regain his footing by expressing support for FHA’s efforts and putting perspective on some of FHA’s actions to strengthen the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and help qualify more borrowers for FHA credit. Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, set...

Internal differences among Democrats and Republicans – let alone the strong differences between the two parties – have prevented Congress from resolving the conservatorship of the two government-sponsored enterprises, according to industry analysts. At the ABS Vegas conference this week sponsored by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network, two people with intimate knowledge of matters in the House and Senate pointed to inter-party issues regarding GSE reform. Andrew Olmem, a partner at the law firm of Venable and a former Republican chief counsel and deputy staff director at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs until 2013, noted...

Lawmakers and regulators alike cited the recent move by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to liberalize its ability-to-repay rule somewhat as an example of the kind of adjustments that can be made to help ease the regulatory burden for smaller financial institutions, especially those operating in underserved markets. “A few weeks ago, the CFPB announced changes to its mortgage rules – a win for small lenders, particularly those in underserved rural areas,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, during a hearing early this week. “There is...

The CFPB excited many in the mortgage industry with some noteworthy proposed changes to its ability-to-repay rule, particularly a broad exemption for portfolio loans held by small lenders. But it’s not chiseled in stone yet – the bureau wants industry and other public comment on a host of issues associated with the revisions it contemplates. For instance, the bureau wants all of the changes in its proposal to take effect on Jan. 1, 2016. The date would be consistent with the end of the calendar year determinations that have to be made regarding the special provisions and exemptions that apply to small creditors under the CFPB’s regulations, and would therefore facilitate compliance by creditors. “The bureau seeks comment on whether the ...