The difference between interest rates on non-QMs in MBS and the interest rate paid to investors in the securities is helping to protect investors from losses. Excess spread in the sector increased as seasoned loans were repackaged.
Changes to underwriting standards and home price appreciation helped investors in non-agency MBS largely avoid losses during the pandemic. By comparison, cumulative losses on subprime MBS during the financial crisis of 2008 hit nearly 20%.
Issuers are still stocking non-agency MBS with GSE-eligible mortgages for investment properties. Lenders and issuers are considering their options following a suspension of limitations placed on the GSEs.
Lenders can’t keep up with the demand for non-QMs from investors in the secondary market. Originations are expected to grow when the agency refi wave crashes.
Rocket’s $968.4 million jumbo MBS is one of the largest from a nonbank post 2010. And after years of contributing non-QMs to MBS issued by others, AmWest is going to issue its own deal.
CoreVest issued a securitization involving bridge loans for residential properties; a prime non-agency MBS issued by JPMorgan Chase in 2018 is on watch for a downgrade.
The definitions used by non-agency MBS lenders and issuers aren’t consistent and many terms haven’t been updated since 2009. The MISMO and the SFA are separately working on setting new standards.
Will the new, forward-looking, credit-sensitive version of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate serve as the index rate for credit-risk transfer and MBS transactions?
The Fed could end its stimulus-related purchases of agency MBS by the middle of 2022; S&P official provides an example of just how conservative rating services can be when assessing non-agency MBS and ABS.