FHA loan originations, driven largely by streamline refinancing, increased 5.3 percent to $60.9 billion in the third quarter of this year, the highest level it has been in almost two years, according to Inside FHA Lending’s latest analysis of FHA data. The third-quarter volume reflected an upward trend that began in the first quarter with nearly $48.5 billion in total FHA single-family production and which later rose to $57.8 billion in the second quarter. The last highest point in FHA production was in the fourth quarter of 2010 when ... (2 charts)

It increasingly appears that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will come out with a qualified mortgage/ability-to-repay rule that will include a legal “safe harbor” for most mortgages – and a “rebuttable presumption” for the rest. Industry attorneys, lobbyists and consumer advocates indicate the CFPB is leaning towards granting a safe harbor for what will be defined as “prime” mortgages – presumably most of the loans that are backed by the federal government. “What we’re hearing is there could be...

No matter how bad mortgage market watchers believe this week’s headline-grabbing lawsuit against Morgan Stanley by the American Civil Liberties Union is, it could be much, much worse for a swath of new potential defendants throughout the securitization pipeline and for the industry as a whole, according to one legal expert. The ACLU headed a group that filed suit in the U.S. District Court in New York on behalf of five Detroit residents. The lawsuit claims that Morgan Stanley pushed a unit of now-bankrupt New Century Financial Corp. to target minority borrowers for high-risk subprime mortgages. Between 2004 and 2007, Morgan Stanley “ramped up”...

Redwood Trust issued a $320.34 million non-agency jumbo MBS this week, its fifth of the year. The security looks a lot like other recent MBS from Redwood and officials at the real estate investment trust are optimistic about future non-agency MBS issuance. Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2012-5 received AAA ratings with credit enhancement of 7.30 percent on the highest rated tranche. Fitch Ratings, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Moody’s Investors Service all placed ratings on Redwood’s latest MBS issuance. The main concerns from the rating services regarding Redwood’s latest MBS have been raised...

Optimism in the non-agency MBS market’s recent extraordinary performance continues as investors look beyond legacy MBS to new transactions, such as Redwood Trust’s Sequoia jumbo securitizations, according to analysts. A recent analysis by Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects lower-yielding asset classes to push investors toward the non-agency MBS sector, where volumes are expected to remain at healthy levels for the rest of 2012. Analysts, however, noted...

Major banks reported increased charge offs and nonperforming assets for home-equity loans in the third quarter of 2012 due to new guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. However, bank officials and industry analysts suggest that banks have largely already reserved for the new reported losses and that overall trends point toward improvements in HEL performance. In June, the OCC updated its accounting guidance to require banks to classify mortgages and other loans discharged by troubled borrowers in bankruptcy as troubled debt restructurings. The agency said a bank should charge off the excess of the loan’s carrying amount over the fair value of the collateral with the remaining balance of the loan placed into non-accrual status. “The bankruptcy court ‘removed’...

Just two institutions – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – end up securitizing the vast majority of conventional home loans, but a large universe of lenders deliver a significantly diverse supply of loans to the government-sponsored enterprises. A new Inside Mortgage Finance special report based on loan-level securities disclosures reveals that 1,848 different institutions delivered single-family mortgages to the two GSEs during the third quarter. They ranged in size from Wells Fargo, which delivered nearly a quarter of mortgages securitized by Fannie and Freddie during the period, to Wisconsin-based Universal Mortgage Corp., which sold one small $39,000 loan to Fannie during the period. The report, GSE Seller Profile: 3Q12, shows...

With the planned acquisition of Homeward Residential, Ocwen Financial fired the latest shot as nonbank special servicers compete to grow their portfolios. While officials at Ocwen noted the “synergistic” benefits of the planned purchase, industry analysts warned that the move puts Ocwen in a shaky financial position. The company announced last week that it plans to acquire Homeward for $588 million in cash and $162 million in Ocwen stock. The acquisition will strengthen Ocwen’s position as the largest ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency last week outlined its plans to design a new securitization system and model pooling and servicing agreements to improve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operations and help revive the non-agency market. Non-agency market participants welcomed the FHFA’s proposed new utility-like infrastructure but said it should not be mandatory for non-agency transactions. The FHFA said upgrades are needed in the MBS systems of the government-sponsored enterprises and “it makes sense to direct ...

In collaboration with the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit last week against JPMorgan Chase and two related entities. The lawsuit targets underwriting on nonprime MBS deals, and Schneiderman said it could serve as a model for future planned actions by the Obama administration’s RMBS Working Group. “There are more cases to come,” he said. “We believe that this is a workable template for future actions against issuers of ...