Distressed

Freddie Mac is postponing the date it will make using its Servicing Gateway platform mandatory, and adding new requirements related to chargeoffs and interactions with document custodians.

The commercial mortgage-backed securities sector will weather the fourth quarter's slowing but steady growth in the U.S. economy, as better loan performance counters a continued decline in volume, Morningstar said.

While delinquent loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities continued trending downward overall, there was an uptick in the rate for more recent originations, a Standard & Poor's report noted.

Foreclosure activity fell 21% in July compared to a year ago and rose 6% from June after twelve consecutive months of declines, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Increased consumer debt and the threat of an economic downturn increase the default risk for government-sponsored enterprise mortgages during the first quarter, according to Milliman.

While seasonal factors were attributed to the monthly rise in mortgage delinquencies for June, the jump was still much higher than last year's fairly steady increase, according to Black Knight.

Life insurance companies increased their mortgage investments to levels higher than historical norms, creating more potential danger for their portfolios in the event of a real estate downturn, a Fitch Ratings report said.

Although the performance of the government-sponsored enterprises' single-family loans continues to improve, the deeply delinquent totals remain significant in states with court-processed foreclosures.

The large number of overleveraged commercial mortgage-backed securities loans coming due in 2019 is likely to cause the payoff rate to drop an additional 9 percentage points by December, a Morningstar report said.

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.