Secondary markets

Ally Financial’s nonbank warehouse lending customers are searching for back-up lines of credit, fearing the government-owned lender may soon cut back.

The Federal Open Market Committee said Wednesday that the central bank will maintain its reinvestments of principal payments from agency mortgage-backed securities and debt holdings into new agency MBS.

The judge’s decision in a hearing the New York State Supreme Court held Tuesday afternoon on the $8.5 billion Countrywide Financial Corp. settlement appears to have kept the proceedings shorter than they otherwise might have been.

Freddie Mac purchased $42 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in March, its strongest acquisition month since the refinancing boom of late 2010.

Hudson City Bancorp—a large correspondent buyer of loans in the New York/New Jersey area—intends to limit its mortgage lending this year as it looks to diversify its mortgage-heavy balance sheet and improve its regulatory capital ratios.

The Securities and Exchange Commission late Tuesday reached a settlement with H&R Block subsidiary Option One Mortgage Corp., over charges that the now-defunct subprime lender misled investors that bought some of the firm’s MBS.

More light has been shed in the past week on two recent notable deals in mortgage-related securities markets and their potential ramifications.

Whole Loan Capital, LLC, New York, is in the market with a $4.8 billion 'flow' servicing deal that will be sourced through a handful of different lenders.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau poked its thumb in the eye of residential loan officers originating mortgages for depositories.

Fannie Mae guaranteed $7.1 billion of new multifamily MBS during the first quarter, its best issuance volume since the advent of the credit crisis four years ago.

It's no secret that over the past three years the megabanks have run screaming from the third-party lending sector, abandoning correspondent lenders and loan brokers alike. Bank of America and TPO: Gone. Citigroup and TPO: gone. Ally Financial: Just about gone. But there's a growing trend of mid-sized and regional banks that see a huge opportunity in wholesale and correspondent.

Cole Taylor Mortgage saw its revenues increase by 94% on a sequential basis in the first quarter while its mortgage servicing portfolio more than doubled in size, according to new figures released by the company.

Until not too long ago eWarehouseOne had a policy: if a firm didn't pass the application review stage, the company would return the mortgage banker's money. At least that's what company vice president Anthony Simich told National Mortgage News last month.

Ally Financial is continuing talks with Nationstar about the REIT buying Residential Capital Corp./GMAC through a 'prepackaged' bankruptcy transaction, according to investment bankers familiar with the companies.

The White House budget office estimates that losses caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's reckless management and lending policies will shrink over the next 10 years and cost the U.S. Treasury just $28 billion.

More than five months after the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) 2.0 was announced and there is not much seen in terms of the program's impact on prepayment data, according to FTN Financial in a report released this week.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Wednesday said it has started a competitive bid process for commercial real estate collateralized debt obligation holdings in the Maiden Lane III LLC portfolio.

New issue, private-label MBS backed by either recent vintage or seasoned loans funded since the downturn have generally had some type of mechanism to enforce and/or clarify parameters for repurchases, a Moody's Investors Service analyst told National Mortgage News.

New mortgage applications rose almost 7% for the week ending April 7 thanks to falling interest rates, which spiked a surge in refinancings, including HARP activity.

U.S. Bancorp saw its mortgage banking revenue more than double in the first quarter, originating roughly $19 billion of residential loans, according to figures released Tuesday.