Capital markets

Aggregate numbers for coronavirus-related payment suspensions are showing more consistency as organizations clarify how they handle them, and some consumers' incentives to use them may be declining.

The coronavirus made it particularly tough for independent contractors and independent business owners to get home mortgages, but there are some signs that market may recover soon.

Sellers are currently willing to concede discounts of around 5%, while bidders are hoping for about 20% off pre-pandemic prices. That estimated gap, which is likely wider in specific cases, has put a freeze on deals.

Ginnie Mae is offering temporary relief related to its acceptable delinquency-rate threshold in response to issuers' need to fulfill the forbearance requirements in the coronavirus rescue package.

First Republic is preparing a private-label residential mortgage-backed securities transaction and could be the first bank to launch this type of deal since the coronavirus first roiled U.S. markets in mid-March.

Many originators stopped making riskier products, including jumbo loans and low credit score offerings, during April.

The government-sponsored enterprises have set new temporary limits on mortgage sales while extending processing flexibilities related to COVID-19.

Some benefits are materializing from Fannie Mae's pledge to limit servicers' exposure to principal-and-interest advances the way Freddie Mac does, but counterparties of both GSEs remain exposed to other concerns.

Apollo Global Management Inc. faces the prospect of having to hand back earlier profits from several of its funds as its holdings were hit hard by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index hasn't yet reflected the impact of the coronavirus, but an independent market maker has some thoughts on how it might.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now able to buy loans in forbearance to alleviate pressure on the sector, but the fees charged by the mortgage giants to assume more risk could turn away some originators.

Competition is starting to ease in the $812 billion private credit market as the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic forces some lenders to tend to problems in their own portfolios.

Correspondent loan sellers are hoping the new GSE purchases will help to open a market frozen by coronavirus-related risk — but the prices offered so far aren't too promising.

A quarterly survey shows a major cross-section of portfolio managers it may be more than a year before global credit conditions return to normalcy from the economic havoc unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Declines in mortgage servicing rights valuations at JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo point to the resurgence of a dilemma that came up during the last downturn.

Lenders that split their sales of loans and servicing between two different investors may be facing yet another challenge due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Ginnie Mae will begin taking requests for assistance from issuers who, having exhausted all other options, are having trouble advancing borrowers' principal-and-interest payments to investors amid the pandemic.

The agencies will give the industry another month to submit feedback on the so-called covered fund portion of the rule "in light of potential disruptions resulting from the coronavirus.”

Mortgage bankers are sounding alarms that the Federal Reserve's emergency purchases of bonds tied to home loans are unintentionally putting their industry at risk by triggering a flood of margin calls on hedges lenders have entered into to protect themselves from losses.

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.