Standard & Poor’s said it is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission to address issues raised by the enforcement staff in connection with botched ratings of several commercial MBS transactions in 2011. A spokesperson for S&P said the rating agency and its parent company, McGraw Hill Financial Inc., are cooperating with the SEC after receipt of a “Wells Notice” last week indicating both companies may soon be the target of a regulatory enforcement action. The SEC notice is...

Freedom Mortgage reported continued growth in originations in the second quarter of 2014, largely driven by correspondent production. The nonbank has focused on agency mortgages with strong underwriting, retaining servicing on the loans. Freedom had $5.72 billion in originations in the second quarter of 2014, a big 48.7 percent increase from the previous quarter and up 31.1 percent compared with the second quarter of 2013. Officials at the nonbank touted Freedom’s strength while originations have declined overall. “While the mortgage industry is experiencing a downturn, Freedom Mortgage has increased...

On the residential side, the top hire was David Firestone, who carries the title of vice president of financial operations.

A significantly bigger Ginnie Mae would be placed in charge of all MBS issued with a government backing while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be wound down and stripped of their government sponsorship under a bill filed last week by House Democrats. The legislation – the Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, sponsored by House Democrats John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT) – has zero chance of gaining traction this year. It would create a new Ginnie Mae MBS backed by conventional mortgages that would have the full faith and credit of the federal government while tapping private capital to absorb some of the risk. The new structure under the Delaney-Carney-Himes bill would create...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has largely wrapped up its enforcement on structured finance issues related to the financial crisis, according to current and former officials at the federal regulator. The SEC’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit is now focusing on more recent issues in the structured finance sector. “The unit has now shifted its attention to the next frontier, and I expect it to zero in on the structuring, rating, valuation, sale, and use of other types of complex financial products, such as commercial MBS, structured notes and credit default swaps,” Andrew Ceresney, the director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in May. Stephen Crimmins, a partner at the law firm of K&L Gates who previously worked at the SEC for 14 years, said...

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...

Barring any unpleasant news, Julian Castro, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, apparently has passed his job interview with the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. This week, Castro, a three-term mayor of San Antonio, TX, laid out his priorities as HUD secretary before committee members if he is confirmed for the job. Castro underscored the importance of “partnership and pragmatism” as the key drivers in running a city. As HUD secretary, Castro said he would enhance “cross-agency collaboration” and emphasize the value of “measuring results” by setting precise goals, consulting with the public on major issues, developing a public report card and annual updates – tools he employed in his municipal housing education and affordable housing initiatives in San Antonio. As mayor, Castro worked to ...

The number of mortgage companies in California rose 7.8 percent on a sequential basis. Nationwide, there are 392,896 federally registered mortgage loan officers…

The volume of outstanding commercial MBS continues to hit record highs and the number of active lenders is near levels seen before the financial crisis. While issuers suggest that the industry is much different than in 2007, there are concerns about looser underwriting. Some $86.48 billion in commercial MBS was issued in 2013, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. And while issuance in the first quarter of 2014 was lower than three of the four quarters in 2013, Standard & Poor’s projected this week that issuance of commercial MBS could hit $90.0 billion this year. The issuance has been prompted...

Building the new common securitization platform for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be the easy part. Plugging in the two government-sponsored enterprises is another story. Through the end of last year, the two GSEs had spent about $65 million to build the CSP, according to a report by the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The IG estimated that Fannie and Freddie this year are spending about $6 million a month to continue that work. In fact, neither the GSEs nor the FHFA have yet come up...