Vandad Fartaj will lead capital market initiatives and investment strategies, with an emphasis on mortgage servicing rights.

The trade group envisions a modern records retrieval system that eliminates the need to move the loan documents associated with mortgages that collateralize both agency MBS and non-agency MBS.

Excluding a one-off $5.69 billion issuance from Chase, securitization of home equity loans declined during the first quarter. Activity involving closed-end second liens held up while HELOC issuance fell. (Includes three data tables.)

Some large servicers are using securitizations for MSR financing while mid-size and smaller servicers stick with bilateral agreements.

Originator collateral misrepresentation and servicer reporting fraud also received a notable portion of votes for the most concerning schemes in a new survey from the Structured Finance Association.

More than $100 billion of loans in commercial MBS have maturity dates this year. Refinancing the loans could be difficult given interest rate movements and declining revenues from commercial properties.

Adoption of portable mortgages would be difficult under current practices in the secondary market. An official at Intercontinental Exchange believes that tokenization could address the issue.

Non-agency MBS master servicing volume has steadily grown at Newrez since Rithm Capital launched the effort in 2023.

FHFA established a new policy — that no GSE servicer should have a market share exceeding 20% — when it authorized Fannie and Freddie to continue doing business with the combined entity that will be formed following Rocket Companies’ planned acquisition of Mr. Cooper Group.

Bank of Hope anticipates three-year earn-back period following sale of low-yielding MBS; Figure touts strong demand for HELOC securitization; Wells transferring some non-agency MBS servicing to Shellpoint; Hooters whole-business securitization downgraded again.