It appears that looser underwriting has been driven by an increase in the number of lenders participating in the HARP program and copy-cat efforts that allow for LTVs of greater than 95 percent.

Investors accounted for 20 percent of home purchases in May, based on the three-month moving average, the third consecutive decline in investor share.

The pool of mortgages in Shellpoint's first deal has a combined loan-to-value ratio of 65 percent, slightly lower than other recent non-agency MBS.

In addition to having the most failed metrics, CitiMortgage was found to be in “widespread” noncompliance with the timeliness requirement to notify a borrower of any missing documents in his modification application.

While some banks have started to securitize jumbo mortgages, the vast majority of jumbo originations remain in portfolio.

MBA pushes for GSE AU engines to be synchronized. Meanwhile, a factoid of mortgage history: Treasury chief Paulson wanted Fannie and Freddie put in receivership.

Bipartisan legislation in the house to enact a transitional period for loan originators relating to the SAFE Act, a previous of a hearing on the Dodd-Frank Act's impact on homeownership by a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, and regulatory implementation materials from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Former rating analysts at two of the major rating services told the Securities and Exchange Commission that problems with the rating system are due to management at the rating services, not the analysts in charge of assigning ratings.

Lewis Ranieri, one of the inventors of the non-agency mortgage-backed security, said there are currently a lack of viable alternatives to agency mortgages.

Ocwen Financial announced on Thursday that it will purchase the vast majority of OneWest Bank’s servicing portfolio. The special servicer is set to acquire $78 billion in unpaid principal balance of mortgage servicing rights and related servicing advance receivables for $2.53 billion.