Secondary

Weeks after Rocket Cos. launched its own IPO, the wholesaler is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that values it at over $16 billion.

The percentage of borrowers who have asked to temporarily suspend payments due to coronavirus-related hardships is down overall, but in the Ginnie Mae market, they're still inching up.

The restrictions on the pooling of loans with any interest term based on Libor will be effective for traditional mortgage-backed securities issued starting Jan. 21, 2021, and earlier for reverse-mortgage securitizations.

Bondholders could see principal losses if, due to the way the documents are worded, the rate is frozen at the last published amount.

The future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Fed’s supervisory regime for the biggest financial institutions, reform of the Community Reinvestment Act and a host of other industry-related issues are on the ballot this November.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been slammed for planning an additional refinancing charge to cover COVID-related losses, but the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency defended the policy in House testimony.

The only rational strategy for holding MSRs is to be very aggressive on protecting the servicing assets via loan recapture. This is one of the chief reasons that banks have been willing to give up their share in lending and servicing as they collapse back to retail-only lending strategies.

The deal brings yet another mortgage origination component under the same roof.

A new report on bank-held commercial real estate and C&I loans indicates troubled borrowers may be skipping payments on loans they won't be able to refinance or extend over the next year, leading to a potential wave of defaults over the next four to six quarters.

Electronic notes did come in handy this year given the mortgage industry's need to operate remotely, but they also increase the government-sponsored enterprises' responsibility for monitoring the risk of multiple counterparties.