Finance

Community banks and thrifts are slowly increasing their originations of non-conforming mortgages, while pulling back on making FHA loans, according to a new study from the American Bankers Association.

Two sales associates for eWarehouseOne have resigned over the past few weeks, including industry veteran Henry Brandt.

Freddie Mac purchased $37.6 billion of residential loans from its seller/servicers in February, a 10% increase from the prior month, and a sign perhaps that Bank of America's recent decision to quit Fannie Mae is helping Freddie.

The CMBS market paralleled broader markets last week with buyers preparing for quarter end. The spreads were roughly unchanged week-over-week as trading volume slowed, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.

Moody's Investors Service is warning that it may downgrade Assured Guaranty Corp., Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., and all affiliated insurance operating companies, an action that might make it difficult for the bond insurer to attract new business.

Bankrupt bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. had a net loss of $963 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded the senior and mezzanine structured-finance ratings on a 1999 series of single-family mortgage bonds issued by the Idaho Housing and Finance Association to A1 from Aaa and Aa2. The outlook is negative.

The loss of revenue from the naming rights of the Kodak Theatre is negatively impacting the commercial mortgage-backed security that includes a mortgage for the renamed Hollywood and Highland Center, according to a report last week by analysts at Deutsche Bank Securities.

If you're looking for the missing piece to the mortgage "deconsolidation" equation, its name is Wells Fargo. Never before in the annals of residential finance has one company amassed such an enormous market share in lending (27%) and servicing (20%).

In case you missed the story on the National Mortgage News website, here's a headline for you: Some firms have the ability to make $10,000 per loan on HARP 2.0 loans. A nice chunk of that profit estimate is tied to secondary market pricing.

Fannie Mae granted more than 11,000 exceptions to its lending standards for single-family mortgages it owned in early 2005, according to a new government report attempting to explain how Fannie's portfolio faltered during the housing bubble.

In competitive sports, being first is always the goal. But the distance between the U.S. - at the head of the pack - and the rest of the world in crafting financial reforms is becoming a major hurdle for implementing the Dodd-Frank Act.

Stonegate Mortgage, a fast-growing nonbank lender based in Indianapolis, has received a $25 million investment form private equity fund, Long Ridge Equity Partners, and plans to use the money to grow both its servicing portfolio and third-party lending channels.

Wells Fargo & Co. - the nation's largest buyer of closed loans outside of the GSEs - has thrown down the gauntlet on the correspondent market, creating an "exclusionary list" of 88 firms that it will no longer buy loans from. How are lenders reacting so far? With a mixture of fear of being on the list and an indifferent "so what?"

Sequoia Mortgage Trust has in the works another private label securitization backed by recently originated jumbo loans, a type of transaction that continues to be rare in the post-downturn market.

In my opinion there is a significant disconnect in the jumbo mortgage between the primary market and the secondary market. What is fascinating is very little discussion or attention is being focused on this issue, at least from the perspective of what consumers want.

Mortgage bankers issued $28 billion of Government National Mortgage Association MBS in February, down 7% from the prior month, according to new figures released Thursday.

While the multifamily market might be the hot commercial real estate sector right now, Fitch Ratings, New York, sees a number of clouds on the horizon, including a loosening of lender underwriting standards and the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The nation's megabanks -- Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America -- are cleaning up on the HARP 2.0 program, earning massive profits on the origination of these high LTV refinancings, according to a new report from Amherst Securities Group.

The National Credit Union Administration said it will receive roughly $5.25 million from HSBC for settling claims against the banking giant related to mortgage-backed securities it sold to five now defunct corporate credit unions.