The mortgage industry this week continued to look for ways to resolve the VA streamline refi loan mess, which arose from the implementation of statutory seasoning requirements under the Dodd-Frank reform act, even as Ginnie Mae pointed to Congress to come up with a solution. At issue is approximately $500 million worth of “orphaned” VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans that are now ineligible for Ginnie Mae securitization. The Mortgage Bankers Association is asking Congress for a legislative fix but is also looking for other forms of relief. Pete Mills, MBA’s senior vice president of residential policy and member management, is trying to drum up investor interest in the orphan loans, which, for now, appear destined for the secondary “scratch and dent” market. More buyers could potentially generate higher bids for the loans and lower losses for nonbanks that could not deliver them ...

Ginnie Mae’s efforts to clamp down on rapid refinance schemes and realign prepayment speeds with the conventional mortgage-backed securities market appear to be paying off. Securities analysts say the crackdown on issuers suspected of loan churning combined with increasing primary mortgage interest rates have reduced the prepayment-speed gap between conventional and Ginnie-backed collateral. Ginnie/Fannie Mae price swaps have improved greatly since Ginnie issued warnings to nine issuers in February to address churning in its MBS program and faster prepayments on loans backed by VA, said Kevin Cavin, head of mortgage strategy at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Ginnie required the issuers to submit a plan to bring prepayment speeds in line with market peers. They were warned that failure to comply would result in temporary debarment from the agency’s multi-issuer pools and ...

While originations increased on a quarterly basis, Wells reported lower mortgage banking income and a shrinking production margin.

If Congress is unable to pass housing finance reform, Steven Mnuchin, secretary of the Treasury Department, said on Thursday that the Treasury will “look at administrative options.”

A provision involving community banks and qualified mortgages in recently enacted regulatory relief legislation could prompt community banks and nonbanks to loosen underwriting standards for non-agency mortgages, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Banks with less than $10.0 billion in assets can receive QM treatment for certain loans that would otherwise be non-QMs if the banks hold the mortgages in portfolio acording to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and ...

The spring homebuying season fueled a relatively modest increase in production of Ginnie Mae single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis. Lenders issued $98.66 billion of Ginnie MBS backed by forward mortgages during the April-May cycle. That was up 6.6 percent from the first three months of the year, but 2018 continued to lag behind the pace set in 2017 by 10.7 percent. Given current trends, annual Ginnie MBS issuance in 2018 could fall short of the $400 billion mark for the first time since 2014. The flow of FHA and VA purchase mortgages was up a solid 23.7 percent from the first to the second quarter, bringing the total for the first half of the year to $121.01 billion. However, that was down 4.7 percent from the same period in 2017. Ginnie securitized $75.02 billion of FHA purchase loans in the ... [Charts]

A retail lender, the Houston-based NRL has increased staff at a branch in Cincinnati by 25 percent this year…

Consultant David Lykken said some mortgage bankers believe LO comp is “untouchable,” but he strongly disagrees…

Freddie Mac plans to launch a new servicing transfer tool within the next couple of weeks, part of a broader effort by the government-sponsored enterprises to enhance liquidity in mortgage servicing rights.

The Fed report focused on the origination of FHA mortgages, which are generally more risky than loans eligible for sale to GSEs…