Mortgage lenders have become so risk-averse and sensitive to potentially punitive judicial or regulatory overkill that they’re demanding near-pristine credit histories and imposing their own credit overlays on top of existing underwriting standards that are already considerably tougher than they were during the years of the mortgage boom. And that’s unlikely to change and may in fact get worse unless federal policymakers make dramatic changes to the legislative and regulatory landscape. That was the main take-away that Paul Miller, managing director and group head of financial services research at...

MBS investors continue to sweat over the impact of the $25 billion multistate servicing settlement, especially regarding potential conflicts of interest when banks own a second mortgage while servicing a securitized first lien. “The minimum requirement is that every time you modify a first lien, you have to modify the second lien to the same degree, or you have to write off the second lien entirely,” explained Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, at a housing conference earlier this week. Donovan characterized the treatment of home-equity loans in the settlement as a positive...

There are additional signs of emerging investor interest – and perhaps more importantly, actual capital – for plowing into mortgage-related bonds, residential and commercial alike. Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York used a competitive process to sell off the remaining $6.0 billion of securities in the Maiden Lane II portfolio to Credit Suisse Securities. The New York Fed said the move will result in full repayment of the $19.5 billion loan it extended to ML II and generate a net gain for the U.S. taxpayer of about $2.8 billion, including $580 million in accrued interest on the loan...

Bank of America won a favorable ruling this week on its proposed $8.5 billion settlement with a group of non-agency mortgage-backed securities investors. With the settlement likely to be decided in state court, analysts suggest that the deal will serve as a model for other non-agency MBS disputes. Baupost Group, a distressed debt fund that has challenged the settlement under the name “Walnut Place,” succeeded in October in having the settlement moved to federal court. However, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals determined this week that the settlement should be overseen by the Manhattan State Supreme Court ...

Bank of America had already been dialing back its mortgage deliveries to Fannie Mae, along with declining overall production volume, before the company unexpectedly announced last week it has stopped sales to the government-sponsored enterprise altogether. But according to reports, a top Fannie official said the GSE acted first to end the relationship in frustrations with the bank’s delays in resolving repurchase issues. BofA said disputes over repurchases were one factor leading the bank to stop selling most single-family mortgages to Fannie, although the company also cited an inability to renegotiate...

Most securitizers in the non-agency MBS market have filed relatively few repurchase demands with loan originators, and only a small portion of these demands resulted in a buyback. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of representations and warranties disclosures now required by the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that non-agency MBS securitizers sought just $7.45 billion in repurchases over the three years ending in 2011. That represented just 1.1 percent of the total issuance reported by securitizers. The new reps and warranties disclosures – which were mandated by the...(Includes one data chart)

A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of heretofore undisclosed data about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buyback demands reveals that individual lenders have faced varying levels of exposure and success in beating back these requests. The government-sponsored enterprises joined other financial asset securitizers in making historic new disclosures regarding the repurchase demands they have made over the years based on a loan originator’s breach of representations and warranties. Rules for the new disclosures, an outcome of the Dodd-Frank Act, were developed by the...(Includes one data chart)

Bank of America this week announced that it is sharply curtailing its mortgage business with Fannie Mae, partly because of differences over buyback demands. The company said it has stopped selling Fannie purchase-money mortgages and refinance loans that are not originated under the Home Affordable Refinance Program. The problem, BofA said, resulted from a mutual decision by the bank and the government-sponsored enterprise not to renew a delivery contract that allowed the bank to sell loans to Fannie efficiently. “While we continue to have a valid agreement with Fannie Mae permitting the delivery of...

Wells Fargo sucked up more than half of the correspondent business Bank of America left on the table after deciding to get out of the business of aggregating closed loans from correspondent lenders, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Wells Fargo increased its sales of correspondent loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by $14.1 billion during the fourth quarter, slightly more than half of the total increase in correspondent deliveries to the government-sponsored enterprises. Wells increased its correspondent mortgage sales to the GSEs by 87.4 percent during the fourth quarter, while...

The departure of MetLife from the residential mortgage market in early January has been a boon for Caliber Funding, a national wholesale and retail mortgage lender looking to expand its presence in existing markets across the country and entering new markets. As MetLife exited, Caliber Funding quickly scooped up approximately 300 former retail loan officers in MetLife’s Home Loan division and announced the addition of four new regional markets. Combining MetLife’s former LOs with newly hired wholesale producers and support staff, the Dallas-based lender is set to enhance its presence in California, Arizona...