MSR

Rate volatility stemming from the banking crisis temporarily disrupted trading, but a broad range of deals large and small have gone up for bid since then.

Non-depositories now dominate home lending, but many of these firms were untested until they had to grapple with the current rising rate environment. How they fare could significantly impact the rest of the mortgage market and, more specifically, the Government National Mortgage Association.

The company's recently purchased subsidiary, Blue Water Financial, will provide tools for asset pricing, transfer, due diligence and other tasks to ease secondary market trading functions.

"To talk about 95% of issuers by count being compliant without recognizing that a very large number of issuers hold few MSRs is disingenuous," one industry executive told the chairman of Whalen Global Advisors.

Such exchanges are neither easy nor cheap and the key to any effective transfer process is accurate loan file information, writes Paradatec's director of professional services.

At the Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary Conference this week, issuers noted their concern about rising delinquency levels, accusations of racial bias in lending, and whether regulators in Albany and Washington are preparing a new campaign against “abuses” in mortgage servicing, the chairman of Whalen Global Advisors writes.

The gain on sale in the retail channel dropped by more than half annually, as the wholesale and joint venture channel endured an even tighter squeeze due to competitive pressures

The bank saw a modest increase in net income from the first quarter, as lawsuit settlements tied to the company’s discontinued home lending business and fees regarding an anti-money laundering and securities class action suit continue to limit growth.

The bank produced $1 billion less in originations while its gain on sale fell 49 basis points from the first quarter.

The bank's second quarter production revenue was down 32% from the first quarter, even as volume increased 4%.

The $16 billion Champion Mortgage portfolio sale follows Ocwen Financial’s purchase of different assets from MAM a few weeks prior.

The alternative minimum tax would challenge at least one influential nonbank and big depositories, according to a new Keefe, Bruyette & Woods report.

The plan "is part of a larger democratic attack on home ownership that includes an increase in the taxes on capital gains as well as an end to 1031 exchanges for the sale of property," writes the head of Whalen Global Advisors.

The transaction goes a long way toward the company’s goal to amass MSRs with a total unpaid principal balance of up to $150 billion.

The agreement, which is extended for five years, also expands upon the delinquent mortgages services Altisource will provide to Ocwen.

The company aims to use the additional capacity to get its non-qualified mortgage business back to producing $125 million per month, and anticipates more purchases of mortgage servicing rights, representatives said in its Q1 earnings call.

Despite falling from quarter to quarter, Flagstar’s mortgage revenues remained strong, while its servicing portfolio grew.

First quarter volume was up 3% among eight depositories that reported so far, compared with models that predicted industry-wide drops as large as 13%.

However, companies were largely unable to use that cash infusion to make investments that lower their costs, since they had to pay out more in compensation.

The diverse group of loans in the servicing rights portfolio offers a potentially attractive recapture opportunity and would be a sizable transaction for their era.