Flagstar Bancorp

The company expects that a previously announced sale of its residential mortgage servicing business will reduce its workforce by an additional 1,200 employees when the transaction is completed this quarter.

Mortgage lenders have imposed steep pricing adjustments for cash-out refinancing as more borrowers seek forbearance.

Two Harbors, a real estate investment trust, sold the bulk of its nonagency mortgage-backed securities portfolio to head off margin calls and refocus on its more favorable agency-MBS investments.

Mortgage lenders could benefit from the surge in refinancing due to widening market spreads, and that could help offset damage to servicing rights portfolio valuations, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Private-label mortgage securitizations with variable servicing fee arrangements could become more common going forward as issuers look to increase investor cash flow while reducing the loan servicer's economic exposure, Fitch said.

The sponsor has increased the credit enhancement on the senior support class of notes on offer in order to offset the slightly higher risk to investors.

Unlike the sponsor's previous four deals, which were backed at least in part by jumbo loans, all of the collateral for FSMT 2018-3INV is eligible to be purchased by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Banks would welcome a proposal to loosen Basel III capital restrictions because it would make holding mortgage servicing rights easier and stem the recent exodus of depositories from the servicing business, executives said.