Borrowers with existing FHA-insured mortgages may continue to utilize the agency’s streamline refinance program regardless of their loan balance. The current cap of $271,050 for “low cost” areas will remain unchanged.
Underwriting standards for loans in commercial MBS are loosening due to competition among issuers for volume, according to industry analysts. Issuers have also removed loans from two recent commercial MBS transactions due to pressure to come to the market quickly. “Increasing competition among commercial MBS loan originators raises the risk that they will further lower underwriting standards from the more stringent practices used in early second-generation commercial MBS 2.0 deals,” said Tad Philipp, director of commercial real estate research at Moody’s Investors Service. Analysts at Fitch Ratings said...
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an internal cop for the U.S. securities industry, has proposed a narrower definition of “asset-backed security” to facilitate the reporting of certain transactions, including Rule 144A ABS transactions, to the group’s disclosure system. The new redefined ABS category would apply to a broad group of securities, including ABS pools backed by credit-card receivables, student loans, auto loans and other products and instruments that currently fall under the ABS umbrella. The proposed changes concern required reporting to FINRA’s Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine. Under FINRA’s proposal, ABS is...
The agencies securitized just $35.46 billion of refinance loans during November, down 15 percent from the previous month, and refinances accounted for 44 percent of total issuance.
Kroll Bond Rating Agency late this week released proposed criteria for rating non-QMs, making it the second rating service to formally seek comments on such criteria.
Brokers and the trade groups that represent them believe new regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put them at a competitive advantage to lenders that actually fund mortgages.
“Our estimate of legal and rep and warrant reserves for the largest banks is a total of roughly $60 billion,” S&P writes in a new report. “We estimate that the largest banks may need to pay out an additional $55 billion to $105 billion to settle mortgage-related issues, some of which is already accounted for in these reserves.”
Ed DeMarco might possibly name a chairman for the CSP platform and let Mel Watt have the final say on the CEO slot. Two mortgage executives interviewed for the CEO job include Peter Carroll and Luke Hayden.
The strength of the non-agency jumbo market, at a time when securitization of these loans has slowed, suggests there is plenty of investor appetite for non-agency jumbos.
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