Has Paul Reddman given up trying to sell CashCall, the refi specialist? Meanwhile, MBS issuance got whacked in the third quarter.

Issuance from new participants in the non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security market wasn’t enough to offset reduced activity by Redwood Trust and others in the third quarter of 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Issuance of jumbo MBS slowed particularly in September, as Shellpoint Partners delayed its planned security and PennyMac Corp. made changes to attract investors. A total of $3.94 billion in non-agency jumbo MBS was issued in the third quarter, a 9.1 percent decline from the previous quarter and about level with the issuance seen in the first three months of 2013. Redwood and Credit Suisse, the jumbo MBS sector’s two biggest players, slowed...[Includes one data chart]

Officials at Redwood Trust are calling for a gradual decline in conforming loan limits as opposed to an immediate repeal of the high-cost agency loan limits. Martin Hughes, CEO and director of the real estate investment trust, said market disruption due to a decline in loan limits is unlikely while non-agency mortgage-backed security investors said additional reforms are necessary. “If the conforming loan limits are reduced, I believe the private market would aggressively compete for those loans that exceed the new limit without any market disruption,” Hughes wrote in testimony this week for a hearing by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He drew a parallel to the reduction of the high-cost loan limit in 2012 from $729,750 to $625,500. A gradual decline in the high-cost loan limit would be...

Jumbo mortgage-backed security structures used by Redwood Trust, PennyMac Corp., and others pose risks for investors, according to Moody’s Investors Service, although the rating service said bonds will only incur losses in “low-probability scenarios.” Moody’s raised concerns about features that go beyond the simple senior-subordinate structures that have been most common since the restart of the non-agency MBS market. Those features include...

While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has encouraged originations of non-qualified mortgages, industry analysts predict that such originations will begin slowly. Even before the QM and risk-retention requirements are implemented for non-qualified residential mortgages, few lenders have been willing to offer subprime mortgages. Originations of subprime mortgages will likely be non-QMs due to the higher interestrates required for subprime borrowers. According to a survey completed by Zillow, borrowers with credit scores under 620 who requested a quote for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage were...

Potential investors have expressed strong interest in the pending risk-sharing deal from Fannie Mae and looking for tweaks in the structure recently used by Freddie Mac. Martin Hughes, CEO and director of Redwood Trust, noted that the real estate investment trust invested in Freddie’s Structured Agency Credit Risk transaction. He suggested two changes as the government-sponsored enterprises work to share risk with the non-agency market. Freddie’s STACR deal was structured...

Higher-priced mortgages accounted for a scant 1.0 percent of loan sales in 2012, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Originations of higher-priced mortgages increased slightly compared with 2011 but the growth didn’t keep up with the increase in overall originations. Higher-priced first liens have an annual percentage rate at least 1.5 percentage points above the average prime offer rate. Federal regulators use the metric as a proxy for subprime mortgages. Some $15.80 billion in higher-priced mortgages were sold...[Includes one data chart]

A year and a half after the $25 billion national servicing settlement took effect, attorneys general and the settlement’s monitor turned up the heat this week on the five banks participating in the settlement. Wells Fargo faces a new lawsuit, Bank of America settled similar claims, and all five servicers face additional testing standards and procedures, with BofA and Wells agreeing to even more stringent process improvements. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, D, announced a lawsuit against Wells. He said consumer advocates have documented hundreds of violations to the settlement by Wells, including delays, lost paperwork and wrongful denials. BofA avoided...

Citadel Loan Servicing, which specializes in non-agency loans, has increased its maximum loan-to-value ratio to 80 percent from 75 percent. The change, which came about a week ago, is for fully documented loans.The privately held nonbank made the switch in response to borrower demand. “The phones are ringing like a son-of-a-gun,” said Citadel CEO Dan Perl. The Irvine, CA-based firm originates...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week proposed its own “qualified mortgage” rule for FHA-insured mortgage loans that builds off the existing QM rule finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year. The proposed rule aligns with the ability-to-repay criteria in the Truth in Lending Act as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Once the proposal becomes final and takes effect, it would replace the CFPB’s rule for FHA loans. The DFA has set a seven-year timetable for FHA, the VA and the Rural Housing Service to promulgate their own QM rules. HUD’s proposed QM rule would ...