Democrats in Congress and consumer advocates remain concerned about tight underwriting standards for mortgages, particularly due to overlays established by lenders. However, at a hearing this week by a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, there was a lack of consensus on what causes underwriting overlays. “Instead of matching the creditworthy borrower at the lower end of the distribution with affordable loans, these borrowers are being cut out of the market entirely,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, suggested...

Non-agency MBS backed by nonperforming mortgages that include a program manager benefit from the unique oversight provided by the manager, according to Moody’s Investors Service. However, there are concerns that in some instances the program manager’s interests may conflict with those of senior bondholders. Moody’s said program managers typically set performance targets and monitor servicers’ progress at the loan level, adopt foreclosure strategies that reduce timelines and expenses and direct servicers’ loss mitigation strategies. The managers are more common on non-agency MBS backed by nonperforming loans than on non-agency MBS backed by newly originated mortgages. Program managers are...

Seven years after the financial crisis, market demand for non-agency residential MBS remains feeble, at best – mostly because of higher yields elsewhere, convexity risk concerns, bond liquidity and pricing and missing structural reforms, industry participants say. “Even with the modest amounts of RMBS issuance that we’re seeing, the market is still struggling to digest those securities. We saw that last year and in the beginning of this year. So the question is: what’s driving that lack of demand?” said Rui Pereira, managing director at Fitch Ratings, during a panel discussion at a residential MBS reform symposium sponsored by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network in New York City last month. In advance of the public discussion, Pereira queried...

The FHA and Ginnie Mae will share in the record-setting $16.7 billion settlement between Bank of America, the Department of Justice and certain other federal agencies and six states to resolve claims related to mortgage fraud and toxic mortgage-backed securities. The FHA will receive approximately $800 million and an undisclosed amount for consumer relief from BofA. The bank was accused of falsely certifying poorly underwritten loans for FHA insurance, resulting in huge losses for the agency. It is unclear how much Ginnie Mae’s share would be from the settlement. “As a direct endorser of FHA-insured loans, Bank of America performs a critical role in home lending,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch for the Eastern District of New York during the announcement of the global settlement in August. “In obtaining a payment of $800 million and sweeping relief for troubled homeowners, we have not ...

The most significant blockages to the return of a healthy and sustainable non-agency residential MBS market in the United States are low volume issuance, regulation, weak AAA demand and missing structural reforms, according to top market professionals. “What’s holding back the recovery?” asked Rui Pereira, managing director at Fitch Ratings, during a panel discussion at a residential MBS reform symposium sponsored by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network in New York City earlier this month. “Other sectors have rebounded and we’re starting to see new asset classes emerge. And yet, we’re seeing very little momentum in our market. So the question is, what’s stalling the RMBS recovery?” In the run-up to the discussion, Pereira polled...

Wells Fargo is not expected to take new bids – at least anytime soon – on a highly delinquent $39 billion non-agency servicing portfolio that Ocwen Financial failed to buy because of all the regulatory scrutiny the nonbank is facing. However, servicing advisors who have seen some of the details on the portfolio contend that Wells may eventually try to unload the package next year, but is by no means under the gun to do so. “One thing you have to keep in mind is...

A top Obama administration official told secondary market participants this week that the concept of a “benchmark transaction” could help the non-agency RMBS market overcome its feeble condition. Used in conjunction with the industry’s RMBS 3.0 project, such a mechanism could help clear away the rubble from the market’s collapse and attract big institutional investors that have largely refused to come back in from the sidelines. “The now widely recognized structural deficiencies in the legacy private-label securitizations that came to light during the financial crisis truly shattered the trust of market participants, with the result that almost seven years now after the collapse, this market is barely clinging to life,” said Michael Stegman, special counselor to the U.S Treasury for housing finance policy. “Concrete reforms are clearly needed to rebuild confidence and establish a resilient, sustainable architecture to bring back significant private capital to the U.S. housing market.” Stegman delivered...

Shopping for credit ratings is alive and well despite the laws and regulations that have been put in place to curb the practice, but so far credit rating agencies have not lowered their standards, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings. “Arrangers and issuers of structured debt continue to tightly control the selection of credit rating agencies,” Morningstar said in a recent analysis. But information quality and transparency fall short of investor expectations, and the general interests of the key stakeholders remain somewhat misaligned, the rating service said. Arrangers and issuers of residential MBS, non-mortgage ABS and commercial MBS continue...

Fannie Mae and JPMorgan Chase announced this week they are partnering in a new risk-sharing vehicle that features recourse provided to the government-sponsored enterprise on nearly $1 billion of new Chase originations. Separately, Freddie Mac has priced two more Structured Agency Credit Risk Transactions. JPMorgan Madison Avenue Securities Trust 2014-1 will simulate the behavior of a $989 million pool of JPMorgan-originated mortgages delivered into Fannie-guaranteed MBS. While similar to Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities program, there are...

While originations of loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages can subject lenders to increased liability, underwriting and compensating factors can help limit risks from non-QMs, according to Moody’s Investors Service. “Non-QM loans typically carry higher default risks than QM loans, but lenders can mitigate those risks by originating loans with attributes that compensate for the weaknesses that put the loans outside of the QM guidelines,” analysts at Moody’s said in a report published late last week. The rating service said...