The non-agency MBS market remains stuck in the post-crisis doldrums, showing no signs of recovering, according to experts participating at this week’s Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Summit in Washington, DC. Efforts to ignite the growth in non-agency securitization channels to help reduce the government’s role in housing finance and draw back private capital have produced little result. Except for sporadic twitches, thanks to a smattering of deals backed by jumbo loans, the non-agency MBS market is barely alive, panelists said. The government, which is working to revive the non-agency market, sees...

Among the many challenges associated with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s pending integrated disclosure rule is expanded legal liability for lenders based on the more threatening Truth in Lending Act, as opposed to the more palatable liability framework of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. During a webinar sponsored last week by Inside Mortgage Finance, Rich Horn, a partner with the Dentons law firm and one of the architects of the rule while a regulator at the CFPB, noted there is no private right of action for integrated disclosures under RESPA. On the other hand, with TILA liability, “there is...

Industry Tries to Rustle Up Support for QM Points-and-Fees Legislation. The Mortgage Action Alliance, the grassroots advocacy group of the Mortgage Bankers Association, recently issued a “call to action” to its members to get on the telephone and call their Senators and urge them to pass legislation that would make key changes to the way points and fees are calculated under the qualified mortgage definition in the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule. S. 1577, the Mortgage Choice Act of 2013, introduced last year by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, exempts any affiliated title charges and escrow charges for taxes and insurance from the QM cap on points and fees. Manchin’s bill is a legislative companion to H.R. 3211, the Mortgage Choice Act, which ...

Production of conventional mortgages – those eligible for sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as jumbo loans – grew at a faster rate than the government-insured market during the second quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Origination of conventional-conforming mortgages increased by 24.4 percent from the first quarter, climbing to an estimated $153.0 billion. While that continued to account for the biggest chunk of new business – 52.1 percent – the biggest proportional increase in new lending came in the jumbo mortgage sector, where new originations jumped 34.1 percent during the second quarter. Production of government-insured mortgages, including FHA, VA and rural housing loans, increased...[Includes two data charts]

The level of warehouse commitments rose 9.6 percent on a sequential basis in the second quarter as originations increased in the primary market, according to figures compiled by Inside MortgageFinance. Overall, commitments edged up to an estimated $30.0 billion across the industry. But compared to the same period a year ago, commitments fell a bloodcurdling 26.8 percent, reflecting the downdraft in the overall origination market over the past 12 months. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance over the past few weeks, usage rates improved...[Includes one data chart]

Roughly $1 billion in damages will flow through to the FHA and Ginnie Mae from Bank of America’s record $16.65 billion global mortgage-backed securities settlement with the Department of Justice. Although most of the DOJ’s case centered around faulty private-label MBS that BofA and its forbears (namely Countrywide and Merrill Lynch) underwrote during the housing boom, a small piece of the settlement is tied to servicing chores that the bank did for Ginnie Mae. And apparently, BofA didn’t do a very good job of servicing the underlying product. The bank took over as the subservicer on roughly $26.2 billion in mortgage servicing rights that once belonged to Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, a large nonbank based in Ocala, FL. When TBW went bust in the second half of 2009, BofA was given the subservicing contract. “BofA serviced the loans for us,” said Ginnie Mae president Ted Tozer. “And they did a ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is requesting feedback from stakeholders regarding proposed policy drafts covering appraiser eligibility and oversight, and conducting appraisals, among other things. The documents will be part of the FHA’s Single-Family Housing Policy Handbook, a consolidated and authoritative agency handbook that will make it easier for stakeholders to do business with the FHA. The drafts also cover appraiser requirements for performing an FHA appraisal, including property eligibility requirements for Title II forward and reverse mortgages, as well as forms and data delivery requirements. Comments must be submitted by Sept. 2, 2014. The Single-Family Policy handbook is a multi-phased initiative to develop a single, comprehensive source for FHA single-family housing policy using clear and direct language and an improved organization structure. In fall 2013, the FHA posted its first draft section, Application Though Endorsement for Title II Forward Mortgages. The FHA is finalizing ...

The list of lenders preparing to offer loans that don’t meet qualified mortgage standards continues to grow. Most recently, a number of nonbanks have expressed interest in the non-QM sector, looking for a different business model than the banks that are holding non-QMs in portfolio. New Penn Financial rolled out its non-QM offerings this week. The wholesale “Home Buyer Power” product allows for debt-to-income ratios up to 55 percent and interest-only options, along with ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay requirements and standards for qualified mortgages have reduced originations of jumbo purchase-mortgages, according to 50.7 percent of the 67 bank jumbo lenders recently surveyed by the Federal Reserve. An Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of the survey results reveals that the major impediments to originations are income verification requirements and ... [Includes one data chart]

Weighed down by high premium costs and lender overlays, FHA lost more primary market share to private mortgage insurers and the Department of Veterans Affairs during the second quarter of 2014. Although June’s FHA endorsement numbers have not yet been released, the trend seen in April through May, along with Ginnie Mae securitization data, suggest that FHA business was up a modest 11.5 percent from the first quarter. But that increase provides no comfort to FHA, which saw its market share go down to 33.7 percent, a six-year low. From April to May, FHA forward endorsements rose by 2.4 percent to $10.61 billion. On a year-over-year basis, however, endorsements were down from $21.9 billion in May 2013, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of agency data. On the other hand, private MI companies reported a total of $44.19 billion of new insurance written (NIW) during the ... [2 charts]