Secondary markets

MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, is brokering a $129 million package of servicing rights guaranteed by the Government National Mortgage Association.

Recently we heard that the FDIC unloaded a $900 million pool of nonperforming and troubled notes, but the agency failed to release a press release on the deal. (It was a structured finance transaction.) In November 2010 the FDIC sold a $23 billion package of MSRs tied to the failed AmTrust Bank. No press release was issued on that deal either.

It would cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac almost $100 billion to write down the principal on the underwater loans they control to current market values, according to a new estimate released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Fifth Third Bank reported that demands by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to repurchase bad loans have slowed, but the seller/servicer is seeing what it calls an "uptick" in file reviews by the GSEs on performing mortgages.

VantageScore Solutions has stated that 46 investors, who run the gamut, are now using its consumer credit score model in their risk and pricing models.

Five years back who would have ever thought that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be an issue in a GOP primary? To the uneducated and ignorant the housing crisis was caused by the two GSEs. To anyone who has been in this business for more than say, seven years, they know the housing implosion had multiple fathers, the GSEs being on a long list, many rungs below Wall Street.

Regulators and a Home Loan bank have asked First Horizon National Corp. for information about some of its securitizations.

Just when Redwood Trust was starting to look a bit like the Maytag repairman of the jumbo MBS market, we began to hear reports this week that two top 10 ranked banks are working on jumbo deals - for later in the year.

The growing number of community banks starting warehouse lending programs has to be gratifying to the executives at Titan Lenders Corp., Denver. It was just three years ago they were so concerned about the future of this business they called for Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to fill the need.

Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. has been placed under supervision by the North Carolina Department of Insurance, its parent company Old Republic International Corp. announced.

Warehouse lending is becoming less popular with some of the big players who have provided it, but remaining and new market participants find it can be profitable if they can get comfortable with the credit.

SunTrust Banks Inc. beat expectations for fourth-quarter earnings on stronger lending, but mortgage-repurchase costs and a drop in debit-card fees overshadowed the good news.

It appears that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are starting to see their market shares erode. The same might be said of the Government National Mortgage Association.

The overall characteristics of jumbo mortgages backing Redwood Trust's latest RMBS are consistent with "high-quality underwriting," according to an unsolicited review of the deal conducted by Standard & Poor's.

Ginnie Mae is in the process of hiring at least 40 new employees which would increase the secondary market agency's staff by one-third.

Warehouse lending is becoming less popular with some of the big players who have provided it, but remaining and new market participants find it can be profitable if they can get comfortable with the credit.

CUNA Mutual Group this week filed suit against RBS Securities, asking a federal court in Madison, Wisc. to order the Wall Street bank to buy back $72 million of failed residential MBS it sold to the credit union insurer's MEMBERS's Life Insurance Co., and CUMIS Insurance Society units.

The latest Freddie Mac economic forecast predicts the housing recovery will be delayed as long as there remains a large gap between buyer and seller sentiment.

Some of the first 2012 deals done through some of the agencies' more recently added multifamily programs are hitting the market and so far it looks like another strong year for these types of bonds.

Remember that 10 basis point increase in g-fees that will pay for the payroll tax break (at least until February 28)? Well, guess what? It appears that some lenders and secondary market investors are hiking their rates a lot more than 10 bps, or so we're told.