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Inside Mortgage Finance

September 24, 2015

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Servicing Market Bounces Back in 2Q15 With Gains in Portfolio Holdings and Agency MBS

The supply of home mortgage debt outstanding started growing again during the second quarter of 2015, thanks to relatively strong growth in retained portfolios, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of new data from the Federal Reserve and other sources. The Fed reported late last week that $9.901 trillion of single-family mortgage debt was outstanding as of the end of June. That was up 0.4 percent from March and represented the biggest supply of mortgage servicing since the third quarter of 2013. The servicing market had been shrinking...[Includes two data tables] Read More

Increasing Compliance Risk and New Entrants Help Subservicing Market Continue to Grow in 2015

The nation’s subservicing specialists increased their contracts by a modest 4.4 percent on a sequential basis in the second quarter of 2015, a sign that many originators would rather outsource the nitty-gritty chore of loan processing to others instead of doing it in house. Compared to the same period a year earlier, subservicing grew a more impressive 20.5 percent to $1.410 trillion, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance. The increasing complexity and compliance cost of servicing make...[Includes one data table] Read More

Mortgage Industry Anxiety Over MSAs Still High; They’re Legal if Done Right, Attorney Tells Group

Apprehension and uncertainty were palpable among industry representatives meeting in Washington, DC, this week over how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau views marketing services agreements and how it plans to deal with them in the future. David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, urged the bureau to provide formal, specific guidance during the trade group’s regulatory conference this week. “We sent... Read More

The M&A Market Heats Up: Bond Giant PIMCO Buys a Mortgage Company. More Outside Money Coming In?

Bond investing giant PIMCO has quietly purchased First Guaranty Mortgage Corp., Frederick, MD, for roughly $50 million, gaining a toehold into an industry it has been carefully eyeing for well over two years now. The acquisition – confirmed to Inside Mortgage Finance by several sources – comes roughly three months after the company pulled out of talks with RoundPoint Mortgage, the nation’s 24th largest servicer. PIMCO – formally known as Pacific Investment Management Co. – has tried... Read More

Ginnie Mae’s Tozer Calls Upon FHA to Find Workable Middle Ground for Loan Certification

Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer is urging the FHA to find some flexibility in its loan-level certification proposal that would balance the need to protect the FHA from losses with lenders’ ability to lend without fear of consequences. Tozer said the controversial FHA proposal is trying to find a middle road between protecting the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and making lenders feel confident that they are accountable only for the most egregious problems and not for small oversights or technical errors. “It is... Read More

HMDA Data Reveal 2014 Origination Volume Stronger Than Previously Estimated, More Applications Denied

Mortgage origination volume was down sharply in 2014, but not by as much as previously thought, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released this week by federal regulators. A total of $1.242 trillion of single-family purchase and refinance loans were originated during 2014, the HMDA data reveal. That was down 29.5 percent from the 2013 HMDA total, although purchase-mortgage lending was up slightly in both the government-insured and conventional markets. HMDA first-lien purchase and refi originations came...[Includes one data table] Read More

FHA Firm on Insurance Termination Penalty for Missed Claim-Filing Deadline but Will Remain Flexible, Says Official

The FHA will consider stakeholders’ concern about its proposal to terminate a lender’s mortgage insurance contract for missing a yet-to-be-finalized deadline for filing claims, an agency official said. For now, however, the agency remains adamant about letting the provision stand despite stakeholder complaints about its severity, said Ivery Himes, director of the Office of Single Family Asset Management at FHA, during a panel discussion this week at the Ginnie Mae annual conference in Arlington, VA. She said missed deadlines are costly and are putting a strain on the agency’s resources. Himes blamed... Read More

GSEs Look to Expand Risk-Sharing Efforts in Terms of Volume, Characteristics and Investors

Both of the government-sponsored enterprises are on track to meet the 2015 risk-sharing goals established by the Federal Housing Finance Agency with a quarter of the year to spare. Officials at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHFA said the GSEs will continue to work to expand the risk-sharing efforts, which are popular among many investors in the secondary market. At the ABS East conference produced by Information Management Network last week in Miami, Scott Smith, an associate director of capital policy at the FHFA, said he would like to see continued efforts to broaden the investor base for risk-sharing transactions. More than 160 investors have bought... Read More

First-Time Homebuyers Slowly Gaining Traction, Freddie Reports Increase

Freddie Mac reported that its first-time homebuyer business is growing and is on target to match its best year in the space since the beginning of the housing crisis. During the first half of 2015, lenders have delivered an average of 17,000 first-time homebuyer mortgages per month to the government-sponsored enterprise. That’s roughly the pace for last year but 25 percent higher than in 2013. Overall, the National Association of Realtors said...[Includes one data table] Read More

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