Federal regulators have implemented a number of rules in recent years aimed at moving banks away from a reliance on credit ratings when making investing decisions. Officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. stress that if a bank’s management doesn’t have comprehensive understanding regarding a security, the bank shouldn’t invest in the MBS or ABS. “The gist of these new requirements is simple: banks should understand the risks associated with the securities they buy and should have reasonable assurance of receiving scheduled payments of principal and interest,” said Robert Hendricks, capital markets policy analyst at the FDIC. In an FDIC report, Hendricks provided...

Information regarding the $72.11 million non-agency mortgage-backed security from Lone Star Funds’ Colt Funding has been limited, although a document obtained by Inside Nonconforming Markets provides some more details on the deal. COLT 2015-A was the first non-agency MBS to be backed predominantly by non-qualified mortgages. Credit Suisse was the lead manager, and U.S. Bank is the trustee. The MBS was backed by mortgages originated by Caliber Home Loans ...

Unfavorable economics and new regulations appear to have slowed the issuance of jumbo mortgage-backed securities in recent months. New deals from Credit Suisse and Two Harbors Investment suggest that the market could be regaining its legs in September. Mid-way through the third quarter of 2015, only four jumbo MBS had been priced, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. An average of about 11 deals per quarter have been issued in the past year ...

Commercial banks and savings institutions continued to grow their investments in agency MBS during the second quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. Banks and thrifts held $1.583 trillion of agency and non-agency MBS on their balance sheets at the end of June. That was up just 0.3 percent from the first quarter, but it was the highest level since the first nine months of 2012, when bank and thrift MBS holdings topped $1.60 trillion. All the gain came...[Includes two data tables]

Issuers of non-agency MBS injected some variety into the market in recent weeks with a deal backed solely by non-qualified mortgages and improvements to the representations and warranties on a jumbo MBS. Lone Star Funds issued a $72 million non-agency MBS backed mostly by non-QMs originated by Caliber Home Loans, a lender owned by the private-equity firm. Bloomberg first reported on the deal, which was priced on Aug. 7. Details on COLT 2015-A have been...

More than a year after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s standards for qualified mortgages took effect, originations of near-prime non-QMs remain limited. However, industry participants are optimistic that originations will pick up and Lone Star Funds recently jolted the sector with a non-agency mortgage-backed security. The $72 million non-agency MBS from Lone Star was backed by non-QMs originated by Caliber Home Loans, a lender owned by the private-equity firm ...

Potential issuers of non-agency mortgage-backed securities looking to loosen underwriting standards on loans to be included in MBS are getting tough feedback from rating services. Fitch Ratings said last week that non-qualified mortgages with weak income documentation would likely face a “double penalty” compared with a similar non-QM that meet the documentation standards set for QMs. Non-QMs with “alternative documentation” included in non-agency MBS would ...

Five Oaks Investment issued its first jumbo mortgage-backed security in April and has plans to significantly increase its activity in the market. “Five Oaks sees a large growth opportunity within the prime jumbo space for institutions with the ability to aggregate, finance, securitize and retain residential mortgage credit risk,” company officials said during a recent presentation to investors. With the $267.2 million Oaks Mortgage Trust 2015-1, Five Oaks aggregated the mortgages in the deal and ...

A handful of firms service the majority of loans included in jumbo mortgage-backed securities issued since 2010. Analysts at Wells Fargo Securities noted that prepayment rates vary somewhat among the servicers, offering pockets of value for jumbo MBS investors. Wells Fargo analysts said $25.26 billion in mortgages included in jumbo MBS issued in 2010 and beyond remain outstanding. The top five servicers handle 83.3 percent of the loans, with Cenlar alone claiming ...

The monitor of a $2.0 billion settlement involving Ocwen Financial revealed last week that the nonbank was found to have failed another metric under the settlement. However, the monitor noted that Ocwen has worked to address many of the issues that have dogged the company over the past year. The monitor re-tested Ocwen on a number of metrics under the settlement due to concerns that were raised about the integrity of the servicer’s internal review group ...