One week after UBS Americas failed in its bid to shutter a lawsuit brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in connection with non-agency mortgage-backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal judge overseeing the case has ordered UBS to hand over internal documents to the FHFA the company argued were privileged. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote ruled last week that parts of memoranda from UBS’ outside counsel to the company which contained factual summaries of meetings held with third-party mortgage originators are not protected by attorney-client privilege and must be disclosed to the FHFA. “Even if it is true, as UBS argues, that the memoranda at issue were created for the ‘predominant purpose’ of rendering legal advice, that does not relieve UBS of the obligation to show that the entirety of each document is privileged,” wrote Judge Cote in her ruling.
Freddie Mac is getting the word out early that it is phasing out its software for managing delinquent home loans with plans to discontinue the service altogether next year. The company has already stopped registering new customers for EarlyIndicator, Freddie’s Windows-based program used to predict loan delinquency. "To provide users with time to transition, we are letting them know we are retiring EarlyIndicator one year in advance,” Freddie said in its announcement earlier this month.
For years, Union Bank of San Francisco has made a name for itself as a top-ranked portfolio lender of jumbo mortgages – but all that could soon change. No, Union Bank isn’t leaving the space – not by a long shot – but the $94 billion asset commercial bank is in the midst of making a major push into conventional lending where its footprint has been quite small. “It’s...
National MI, a new entrant in the private mortgage insurance market, began issuing its first commitments this month, although company officials acknowledge that a lot of the company’s operations are still being put together. In fact, building a new MI from scratch with state-of-the-art technology and no hangover from the housing collapse is one of National MI’s key advantages, officials said. “2013 is...
Fannie Mae is making it easier for small and medium-sized lenders to deliver electronic mortgages to the government-sponsored enterprise. “Currently, lenders are required to obtain a variance to their master agreement in order to deliver electronic mortgage loans (eMortgages) to Fannie Mae,” the GSE said in a recent selling guide announcement. “Fannie Mae would like to expand...
Private mortgage insurers provided coverage on some $8.2 billion of mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the first quarter of 2013 that had loan-to-value ratios exceeding 105 percent, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data. Private MIs had little choice in the matter since the Home Affordable Refinance Program allows underwater borrowers to refinance without getting additional MI, or any mortgage insurance if the original loan wasn’t insured. In fact, Fannie and Freddie securitized a total of $27.1 billion of mortgages with LTV ratios over 105 percent, most of which did not have insurance. But most private MI coverage was placed...[Includes one data chart]
Nationwide, mortgage originations fell by 4.8 percent during the first quarter of 2013, but a lot of that decline took place at the industry’s biggest lender, Wells Fargo, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Mortgage originations totaled an estimated $500.0 billion during the first three months of the year, down from $525.0 billion during the fourth quarter of 2012. It still ranked as the fourth strongest quarter in new loan production since the mortgage market tanked back in 2008, and originations in early 2013 were up 19.0 percent from the same period last year. But most of the indicators are...[Includes two data charts]
About 14.1 percent of the mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the first quarter of 2013 had private mortgage insurance coverage, but those loans were sold by some 1,631 different lenders, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Although Wells Fargo ranked as the top seller of MI-insured loans to the government-sponsored enterprises, with $9.85 billion in volume, over half of those mortgages were originated by correspondent lenders that may have played a role in deciding which private MI to use. Looking only at retail originations, Quicken Loans was...[Includes one data chart]
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