Secondary markets

Mortgage standards are already too tight and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency should not make them even tighter in drafting a final 'qualified mortgage' rule, according to a new letter signed by 33 lender, housing and consumer groups.

Private-label residential MBS interest shortfalls and liquidity disruptions that Standard & Poor's has been observing are likely to continue for some time, a credit analyst said in an online broadcast.

Rumors are starting to surface that if and when a 'HARP 3.0' program is unveiled it will include non-GSE loans. As one commenter told us, "There are a lot of Alt-A loans that look just like GSE loans, but went to private investors. Why should they be punished because their loan was sold to the wrong investor?"

Mortgage lenders issued $29.2 billion of GNMA MBS in March, up 5% from the prior month as securitizations of jumbo and multifamily loans surged, according to new figures released by the government.

Over the past two months National Mortgage News has been reporting on a mysterious warehouse lender called eWarehouseOne. Late this week we learned that Anthony J. Simich, a division vice president for the firm - and one of few employees there who actually returns phone calls and emails - resigned.

The correspondent lending division of GMAC Bank on Friday told its mortgage banking clients that it will "significantly" curtail government lending tied to FHA, VA and USDA, according to a memo provided to National Mortgage News.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust has a struck a new master repurchase facility with Credit Suisse First Boston that will help the REIT fund its correspondent mortgage business.

Comments about the Property Assessed Clean Energy program that the Federal Housing Finance Agency asked for came in recently with environmental advocates and local government representatives calling for Fannie Mae and Freddie to find a way to deal with the lien dilemma the program presents so as not to restrict the use of PACE loans.

Three banks suing MBIA Inc. accused the bond insurer of deliberately withholding damaging financial projections from insurance regulators who were evaluating its transformation.

The government controlled Ally Financial Thursday morning filed an amended S-1 statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it hopes to sell $100 million worth of common stock to the general public.

CoreLogic, once the largest shareholder of Ellie Mae’s stock, sold its stake in the loan origination system vendor.

The Prestwick Mortgage Group is offering $128 million of Freddie Mac servicing rights and hopes to complete the auction by the end of next week.

As mortgage rates continue to be at all-time lows, the present day is a better time than ever before for a prospective homebuyer to purchase any type of property.

Roughly 33 full-timers will lose their jobs when Ally Financial closes its MBS broker/dealer operation, according to a company spokeswoman.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has conceded that the higher incentive payments the Treasury Department is willing to pay make principal reduction cost effective for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Over the last 10 years, $23.7-billion State Employees' Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. has not had a single mortgage handed back to it by an investor due to poor underwriting.

Even though third-party due diligence has always been performed on whole loans, the providers of these services have more skin-in-the-game now that rating agencies have very stringent requirements.

Non-agency MBS investors should look for bonds with smaller loan sizes in a structure that is levered to severity, said Amherst Securities Group analysts in a recent report.

If the new RMBS deals issued in the past week give an indication of what the non-agency market space will look like, then it is clear that only the best will do.

The potential sale of the Maiden Lane III (ML III) assets might signal that the Federal Reserve is making its move to take liquidity out of the system, securitization experts said Thursday.