Banks and thrifts held $155.55 billion of non-mortgage ABS on their books as of the end of March, a 2.3 percent decline from the previous quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data. The first-quarter figures mark the fifth straight quarterly decline in bank ABS holdings, which peaked at $173.80 billion at the end of 2013. Bank ABS holdings were down 9.9 percent from the first quarter of last year. Almost every ABS category was...[Includes two data tables]

Slowing growth, looser underwriting and increasing regulation are likely to tap the brakes on the joyride U.S. auto lenders have enjoyed in recent years, according to recent research from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service. “Despite the robust performance of the auto sector in the past few years, we believe bumpier roads may lie ahead,” S&P Credit Analyst Igor Koyfman said in a recent report. “As lenders compete for market share, they have extended loan terms and increased the average financing amount, while yields have declined.” Lenders have also increased...

The CFPB has launched a public inquiry into student loan servicing practices that create repayment challenges, hurdles for distressed borrowers, and economic incentives that may affect the quality of service. The bureau said it has observed that many borrowers are experiencing significant student debt stress. “Consumers have complained about billing problems associated with payment posting, prepayments and partial payments,” it said. The CFPB has also heard from distressed borrowers that student loan servicers aren’t being very useful in helping them avoid defaults and delinquencies. “Distressed borrowers complain that they are given the runaround when they ask for help, they have a hard time getting straight answers from servicing staff, and that the staff is untrained or unequipped to deal with ...

CFPB May Review Lender-Paid MI. Pricing on lender-paid mortgage insurance policies has come down over the past several months, apparently spurring the CFPB to take a look at what’s going on behind the curtain. Citing industry officials who claim to have knowledge of the situation, Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated publication, reported late last week that the powerful consumer regulator may focus on whether there is some kind of quid pro quo going on between lenders and mortgage insurers. In particular, the CFPB is interested in the discounting of LPMI in exchange for a lender sending more of its MI business to an insurer and whether such a practice violates the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the newsletter reported. In ...

ABS issued in recent years have included a marked increase in the use of electronic contracts, particularly for prime auto deals. Industry analysts note that e-contracts can be treated similarly to physical contracts, though issuers must address concerns from investors, lenders and rating services. “The pace of e-contract adoption has increased, and some prime auto captives are believed by industry participants to be moving to 100 percent e-contract origination by the end of 2015,” DBRS said this week. “The adoption of e-contracts has also occurred across the ABS industry, with subprime auto and timeshare lenders beginning to use them for loan originations.” Use of e-contracts in the auto space has been boosted...

Underwriting standards, not a lack of income or significant student loan debt, have held back originations of mortgages to first-time homebuyers in recent years, according to industry analysts. As lenders gradually loosen their underwriting standards, originations of mortgages for first-time homebuyers are expected to increase in the coming years. In a recent brief, analysts at Capital Economics stressed that there doesn’t appear to have been a fundamental shift in homeownership aspirations, even though housing is currently slightly over-valued compared with renting. “There is...

Borrower complaints about their student loans continued their apparently inexorable downward momentum, both quarter over quarter and year over year, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB of the latest complaint data from the CFPB. Industry wise, consumer gripes fell 11.3 percent QoQ and an even larger 15.7 percent YoY, the data show. Navient, the Sallie Mae spinoff, continues to dominate because of the sheer size of its footprint in the marketplace. Nonetheless, it showed impressive drops of 24.3 percent and 33.0 percent, respectively, for both time periods. Repayment problems continue to represent the lion’s share of the issues about which student-debt borrowers have issues. However, after peaking in the second quarter of 2012, and experiencing another big ...

Non-mortgage ABS production jumped sharply higher in the first quarter of 2015, with $50.08 billion of new issuance, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. First-quarter issuance was up 38.1 percent from the previous three-month period, although early 2015 was down 6.3 percent from a year ago. The two strongest segments of the market were vehicle finance ABS, which accounted for 46.7 percent of issuance during the first quarter, and business loan ABS, which chipped in another 30.9 percent of new production. Ford Motor Credit had...[Includes three data charts]

Two new reports from Fitch Ratings, taken together, indicate a modest weakening in the collateral backing U.S. auto ABS deals is continuing, with perhaps a temporary reprieve thanks to short-term cash flow positives for consumers, mostly tax refunds and lower gasoline prices. Still, the overall outlook is positive. U.S. prime auto ABS collateral has been marginally weakening in the last few years, most recently because of amped-up competition among auto finance companies, Fitch said in a report out this week, based on transactions issued between 2007 and fourth-quarter 2014. “The quality of prime auto loan securitized pools was...

As the result of a lawsuit it filed late last month, the CFPB has obtained a preliminary injunction against what it characterized as the ringleaders of a “robo-call” phantom debt-collection operation, their companies and their service providers. According to the CFPB, the debt collectors, using various aliases, allegedly deployed automated calls to manipulate consumers in attempts to collect debt the consumers did not owe to them, and in most instances, to anyone else. The bureau alleges that the scheme depended on the participation of the telemarketing company that sent the robo-calls and payment processors that allowed the collectors to access consumers’ bank accounts. Named in the suit are New York resident Marcus Brown and Georgia resident Mohan Bagga, as well ...