Spring EQ recently launched operations, focusing on home-equity loans. The nonbank was co-founded by Jerry Schiano, president and CEO of New Penn Financial, a position he will also retain. HEL lending is dominated by banks and credit unions. However, Schiano said Spring EQ aims to compete with other types of lenders. “I want to help underserved borrowers who are currently relying on high-rate personal loans and credit cards or refinancing with large up-front fees,” he said ...

Fitch Ratings assigned a subprime servicer rating to Citadel Servicing in late December, an indication that Citadel will be involved with rated nonprime mortgage-backed securities. Citadel received an RPS3- rating with a stable outlook. Such level 3 servicers demonstrate proficiency in overall servicing ability, according to Fitch. “The servicer rating and stable outlook reflect Citadel’s experienced management team, adequate risk management practices and moderate use of technology ...

Social Finance, a nonbank that started offering mortgages in 2014, is preparing to issue a $168.79 million jumbo mortgage-backed security, according to presale reports. It will be the first jumbo MBS from SoFi, which originated all of the mortgages backing the deal. While SoFi started operations in 2011 as a peer-to-peer or marketplace lender, Fitch Ratings noted that its funding strategy has evolved to more traditional sources, such as banks and other large financial institutions ...

The Structured Finance Industry Group released the fifth edition of its RMBS 3.0 green papers last week, featuring a draft deal-agent agreement and proposed bondholder-communication protocols. The green paper effort to revive the non-agency mortgage-backed securities market started in 2013 and now totals 400 pages. “That’s a lot of work for an industry that apparently doesn’t exist,” Richard Johns, SFIG’s executive director, said last week at the trade group’s annual ...

Proposals aimed at reviving the issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities have done little thus far to get volumes anywhere near the levels seen before the financial crisis. Industry participants suggest that there are a number of factors beyond proposed standards from trade groups that are limiting issuance. The American Securitization Forum started its effort to revive the non-agency mortgage-backed security market in 2009. The first post-crisis jumbo MBS backed by newly originated ...

Originations of adjustable-rate mortgages increased by 9.4 percent in the third quarter of 2016, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. With an increase to interest rates on mortgages seen this quarter and even higher rates expected, ARMs appear likely to gain market share. An estimated $58.0 billion in ARMs were originated in the third quarter, accounting for 9.9 percent of first-lien originations, according to Inside Mortgage Finance ... [Includes one data chart]

Lenders originating interest-only mortgages showed divergent trends in the third quarter, with some posting significant declines on a quarterly basis while others continued to increase production. A group of 12 lenders tracked by Inside Nonconforming Markets originated a total of $9.64 billion in IOs during the third quarter, down 23.7 percent from the previous quarter. The decline was driven by PHH Mortgage, whose IO originations through three quarters this year ... [Includes one data chart]

Royce Goldman, a marketing lead generator, noted that as interest rates rise, the firm can help connect lenders that originate non-qualified mortgages with borrowers. “As private capital and securitization continue to expand under a more favorable regulatory climate, we will continue to see liquidity expansion but it will require a data driven approach to sourcing the client profile this investor community will lend to,” said John Royce, CEO of Royce Goldman.

Standards proposed by the Structured Finance Industry Group for disclosures of representations and warranties on new non-agency mortgage-backed securities are likely to put a burden on conduits and other aggregators that pool mortgages from scores of originators. The Wall Street group recently released the fourth edition of its RMBS 3.0 “green papers,” which aim to revive issuance of non-agency MBS by making reforms that will attract investors. The latest green paper focused on ...

New loan limits for the government-sponsored enterprises in 2017 won’t have much of an impact on jumbo originations, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced last week that the baseline conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will increase in 2017, which will also boost the GSEs’ high-cost loan limit. The baseline conforming loan limit will increase to $424,100 in 2017, up from the $417,000 level it has ...