Secondary markets

Falling mortgage rates have reached the point where they are spurring speculation about a possible resurgence in refinancing.

Nonbank lenders are gearing up for new secondary market requirements and must make some difficult choices about whether to buy, sell or hold mortgage servicing rights, says Ruth Lee, the executive vice president of MorVest Capital.

The expected decline in conventional mortgage volume may open the door for more non-qualified mortgage lending as secondary market investors seek new opportunities to deploy capital, says Tom Millon, CEO of Capital Markets Cooperative.

Liquidity, products and pricing are the main concerns for the secondary mortgage market in 2019.

Mortgage servicing assets are poised for gains in 2019. But as higher average mortgage rates spur lenders to sell servicing rights and diversify their loan offerings, servicers' work will also get more complicated and costly.

Fannie Mae completed 10 traditional and front-end credit risk insurance transactions during 2018, sharing $2.6 billion of risk, including $192 million in its final deal of the year.

Ginnie Mae officials are concerned about unusual activity with Department of Veterans Affairs cash-out refinances and are investigating the causes, as well as whether predatory lenders are taking advantage of veterans.

If falling volume and rising costs weren't bad enough for nonbank mortgage lenders, an extended run of tight gain-on-sale margins is further eating into their profits.

Returns on mortgage-backed securities in October lagged Treasuries by 37 basis points, the most since November 2016.

The unique approach Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are each taking with their credit-risk transfer products is quickly becoming a key point of differentiation that's rekindling competition between the government-sponsored enterprises.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transferred a substantial amount of credit risk to the private sector through both single-family and multifamily market transactions in the first half of the year, with activity expected to rise in 2019, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

QRL Financial Services, the mortgage outsourcing division of First Federal Bank of Florida, is the latest investor to seek out better secondary market execution by purchasing electronic notes from correspondents.

Despite an overall weak mortgage originations market, Flagstar Bancorp's third-quarter earnings grew 20%, due in large part to its ongoing efforts to diversify operations.

Rising mortgage interest rates not only will continue to constrain banks' once-robust revenue from this business, they will also affect existing borrower credit quality, a report from Moody's said.

The departing CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac oversaw significant cultural and operational shifts that made the housing finance system safer and more responsive to market needs, but a tough job lies ahead for their successors.

Industry downsizing resulted in an increase in critical defects found in closed mortgages as loan packaging errors continued to rise during the first quarter, according to Aces Risk Management.

Wells Fargo Home Lending is tapping eOriginal to launch an electronic note program, marking a step forward for the mortgage industry's push toward a more digital process.

Mortgage-related earnings at five banks were lower due to the effect of higher interest rates on loan volume this year, even though late-season homebuyers improved consecutive-quarter origination numbers at three companies.

Home price index swaps, treated as a second lien on a property, will be used to reduce the default risk associated with low down payment mortgages, one of the program's creators said.

Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has purchased the remaining equity in Merscorp Holdings it did not already own.