MBS

The Federal Reserve's emergency rescue of the U.S. mortgage market should have set off celebration among lenders trying to keep up with demand from borrowers. Instead, executives at Quicken Loans got a hefty margin call.

Federal Reserve officials restated their pledge to hold the benchmark interest rate near zero and will keep buying bonds, judging that the coronavirus pandemic "poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term."

FHFA Director Mark Calabria stated that he was directing the GSEs to "add liquidity" to the markets, but the actions of the FHFA say precisely the opposite.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has promised to take care of advances on principal and interest payments for coronavirus forbearances after four months, but servicers remain concerned about other responsibilities.

FHFA head Mark Calabria and his FSOC counterparts need to sit down with the Treasury and fashion an emergency capital plan for the GSEs.

Ginnie Mae and the FHA provided temporary liquidity relief for mortgage servicers bracing for higher delinquencies, but the industry continues to pressure Treasury and the Fed to provide more comprehensive support.

New Residential Investment, a real estate investment trust focused on housing, is selling a portfolio of debt with a face value of $6 billion.

Mortgage servicers need direction from federal agencies on how to implement the forbearance plans called for in the CARES Act, according to the Community Home Lenders Association.

Impac Mortgage Holdings suspended all mortgage lending activity for a two-week period effective March 31, citing liquidity constraints at the company's secondary market counterparties as a result of the coronavirus.

Mortgage bankers are sounding alarms that the Federal Reserve's emergency purchases of bonds tied to home loans are unintentionally putting their industry at risk by triggering a flood of margin calls on hedges lenders have entered into to protect themselves from losses.

A top U.S. regulator is exploring whether to throw a lifeline to mortgage servicers stressed by the coronavirus pandemic by tapping a program meant to address natural disasters.

Two Harbors, a real estate investment trust, sold the bulk of its nonagency mortgage-backed securities portfolio to head off margin calls and refocus on its more favorable agency-MBS investments.

A growing number of real estate investment trusts are facing margin calls, putting increased strain on mortgage market infrastructure and adding to pleas for relief to be included in pending legislation.

The Federal Reserve Board should create a dedicated facility for mortgage servicers to access in order to make required advances, industry participants and observers, including its largest trade group, said.

The $16 trillion U.S. mortgage market — epicenter of the last global financial crisis — is suddenly experiencing its worst turmoil in more than a decade, setting off alarms across the financial industry and prompting the Federal Reserve to intervene.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency authorized the government-sponsored enterprises to lend additional support to the mortgage-backed securities market and temporarily allow some flexibility in lending requirements to address coronavirus-related concerns.

The Federal Reserve committed Monday to conducting more asset purchases of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities and announced $300 billion in new financing for credit facilities.

Additional mortgage-backed securities purchases by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will address private investor skittishness about the asset class, but it will not necessarily lower rates.

A number of proposals have been floated for debt payment holidays and other types of moratoria, but such approaches offer solutions that are worse than the problems.

The Trump administration is considering a plan to allow homeowners whose income was cut by the coronavirus to delay mortgage payments. Still to be decided is a mechanism for borrowers to catch up.