RMBS

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's plan to combine Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages into a single security starting in June 2019 promises to bring both benefits and challenges to the mortgage sector.

The real estate investment trust is issuing $450 million of five-year notes backed by rights to excess servicing strips of Fannie Mae loans.

The 860 loans backing its latest transaction, the $258.4 million Verus Securitization Trust, 2018-INV1, are all "business purpose investor loans,” according to S&P.

A large portion of the collateral for the $1.06 billion IH-2018-SFR1 is being rolled over from two transactions originally issued in 2015.

HELOCs make up just 2.9% of the $281 million pool of collateral; 81.8% of the HELOC borrowers are currently ineligible to make draws; another 18.2% are permanently frozen.

The investigation targeted 36 residential mortgage-backed securities deals involving $31 billion worth of loans, more than half of which defaulted, according to the Justice Department.

Lenders should not get so desperate chasing volume by originating lower credit non-qualified mortgage products that they are inviting the next regulatory crackdown, said David Stevens, the Mortgage Bankers Association's CEO.

The non-bank lender's $299.8 million prime, high-balance deal is no surprise; it follows a warehouse securitization last year. Angel Oak is also in the market with a $238.8 million deal.

Banks would welcome a proposal to loosen Basel III capital restrictions because it would make holding mortgage servicing rights easier and stem the recent exodus of depositories from the servicing business, executives said.

A mortgage program created by a 2015 partnership between the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago and Ginnie Mae has securitized over $1 billion in government-backed mortgages, the partnership announced.

Essent Guaranty is marketing $360.75 million of notes linked to the performance of a pool of residential mortgages that it insures; its following in the footsteps of Arch Capital.

Over 40% of the collateral is from two 2016-vintage transactions that were recently "collapsed" because proceeds from liquidations had slowed. Then there's the exposure to Puerto Rico.

Tight margins, regulatory clarity and a renewed appetite to expand have made mortgage brokers and the wholesale channel attractive again, at least to the small and medium mortgage lenders.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group has agreed to pay $500 million to the state of New York after a $5.5B agreement last year with the FHA, and another probe is pending.

The $446 million Pearl Street Mortgage Company 2018-1 Trust is backed by 30-year, fixed-rate loans with credit characteristics in line with recent private-label prime jumbo transactions rated by Fitch Ratings.

Participants at the Structured Finance Industry Group conference in Las Vegas say that future deals could be linked to the performance of jumbo, as well as conforming loans.

Financial services groups are calling for more funding for the Internal Revenue Service that could fix flaws in the agency's system for verifying the income of mortgage applicants.

Lender and servicers are increasingly using nontraditional methods such as "hybrid" appraisals and broker price opinions in an attempt to cut costs, but some are more reliable than others.

Almost two years after settling mortgage securitization allegations with the Department of Justice and a group of states, Goldman Sachs has fulfilled more than half of its consumer relief commitment.

With few foreclosed homes left to pick up on the cheap, the biggest landlords are buying, or building, new single-family homes to pad their portfolios; mortgages on these properties could show up as collateral in rental bonds.