Top-notch ratings assigned by three firms to a non-agency mortgage-backed security from Galton Funding prompted criticism from Fitch Ratings, which didn’t rate the issuance. The planned $452.7 million Galton Funding Mortgage Trust 2018-2 diverges from traditional non-agency MBS in its treatment of unpaid interest from delinquent mortgages. Fitch suggested that the change to the deal structure was so significant that it wouldn’t rate the transaction. Fitch noted that losses from unpaid ...

Fitch Ratings is now giving a more detailed assessment of MBS due diligence firms. This week, the company introduced a tiered rating system to replace the previous designations used for classifying third-party reviewers conducting due diligence on new non-agency MBS.

FHA home-equity conversion mortgages have dominated originations of reverse mortgages but tighter underwriting requirements on HECMs are expected to prompt issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities backed by conventional reverse mortgages, according to industry analysts. “Many originators that were solely dependent on HECM originations have begun to diversify into jumbo, uninsured, proprietary reverse mortgages, which allow higher proceeds amounts than HECMs,” ...

DBRS was the most active rating service in the non-agency MBS market during the first six months of 2018, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. DBRS rated 26 non-agency MBS totaling $14.08 billion during the first half of the year, which represented 43.5 percent of total issuance. Its market share was up 4.0 percentage points from 2017. Fitch Ratings grew its market share in rating non-agency MBS, which rose from 31.0 percent last year to ... [Includes two data charts]

Longer auto loan terms and softer collection practices by some lenders are slowing amortization schedules and backloading losses in certain subprime auto loan ABS, said S&P Global Ratings.

Flagstar Bank looks to have found an agreeable due diligence sampling rate for loans in its prime non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The company is preparing to issue a $476.1 million prime non-agency MBS, according to presale reports published last week. It’s the second issuance in a row from Flagstar where 30.0 percent of the loans were subject to third-party reviews. Only 20.0 percent of the loans in a $704.1 million deal Flagstar issued in April were subject to ...

Rating services are divided on whether the income documentation used by Caliber Home Loans qualifies as full documentation. The differences are apparent in a pending $342.6 million issuance from Lone Star Funds, which is stocked with mortgages from Caliber. According to Fitch Ratings, Lone Star is the only current issuer of nonprime MBS to keep mortgages with nontraditional income-documentation out of its deals. The rating service said 99.4 percent of the dollar volume of the loans ...

Ginnie Mae issuers produced $36.68 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities last month, a modest 5.0 percent gain from July, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis and ranking. Through the first eight months of the year, Ginnie issuance was down 11.0 percent from the same period in 2017. The MBS figures do not include FHA home-equity conversion mortgages, and loan amounts are truncated to the lowest $1,000. Purchase mortgages accounted for 75.6 percent of new issuance in August, although volume was up just 1.9 percent from July’s level. On a year-to-date basis, the purchase-mortgage share rose from 65.7 percent in 2017 to 70.0 percent for the first eight months of this year. Total volume, however, was down 5.1 percent. The refinance market has been more wobbly. As of the end of August, refi volume totaled $65.87 billion, down 26.2 percent from the ... [Chart]

The uniformity once seen across rating services in their assessments of specific tranches of residential MBS has become a lot less common in recent years. The trend prompted Fitch Ratings to raise concerns about “rating inflation,” as competitors have at times been more lenient in their assessments.

Coworking is playing a more significant role in commercial real estate, posing new challenges to underwriting and valuation standards for the commercial MBS, rating services said.