Jumbos for borrowers with strong credit profiles present banks with limited risks – particularly adjustable-rate mortgages – and the loans offer lucrative opportunities to cross-sell other products.

Others believe thesecases could have a chilling effect on FHA lending to the detriment of first-time homebuyers and borrowers with insufficient cash for a downpayment.

On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages with private mortgage insurance, average closing times declined to 42.5 days from 46.0 days.

On the non-QM front, Bayview will go as high as $1.5 million, but the loan-to-value ratio is capped at 80 percent.

Every buyer has a different definition of "reperforming," but generally the loan must be current for at least 12 months.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council of the Treasury Department has its eye on the rapidly growing market presence of nonbank servicers such as Ocwen, Nationstar Mortgage and Walter Investment Management.

Although the FHLB-Chicago will facilitate jumbo purchases with Redwood, any FHLB member across the nation can upstream product to the REIT.

RBS, which is effectively owned by the British government, still faces liability in private label security (PLS) matters tied to Greenwich Capital, a U.S. subsidiary that at one time was the largest nonprime issuer in the nation.

The loans in the deal were largely originated by First Republic Bank and Chase, banks that certainly have the capacity to hold jumbos in portfolio.

Morningstar Credit Ratings late last week published new rating criteria for non-agency MBS. While the firm has been active in the commercial MBS sector, the non-agency MBS rating criteria Morningstar released in 2012 never caught on with issuers. “We have taken a fresh, holistic approach to the residential MBS rating process to help investors gauge the relative default risk of a security against its peers,” said Vickie Tillman, president of Morningstar. Tillman joined the rating service in August after more than 30 years at Standard & Poor’s. Morningstar said...