Economy

The top Democrats on the House and Senate banking committees urged the Trump administration to pull the plug on any steps to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with the pandemic still taking a toll on the economy.

The nonbank lender is co-sponsoring a $258.4 million residential mortgage pool comprised entirely of wealthy borrowers with 15-year term contracts.

With infection rates rising and unemployment claims increasing since Thanksgiving, mortgages in coronavirus-related forbearance rose by 37,000 last week, according to Black Knight.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has all but ruled out letting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exit U.S. control before he steps down, leaving it to the Biden administration to decide the fates of the mortgage giants.

Last year, smaller lenders were put at a slight disadvantage in terms of what they were charged in guarantee fees when they sold loans for cash.

While 12,000 mortgages exited forbearance, the most borrowers entered forbearance protection in a week since early September, according to Black Knight.

But late payments for all other investor types rose compared with the second quarter.

The consumer bureau's revamp of criteria for "qualified mortgages," a special regulatory class of loans free from liability, emphasizes pricing instead of a borrower's debt-to-income ratio.

Industrial warehouses, including cold storage facilities, are among the best-performing categories of commercial real estate as hotels, malls and offices face uncertain futures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The average per-loan profit margin remains incredibly strong, but the share of senior executives expecting it to fall has risen markedly.

The automaker is reportedly planning to apply for a bank charter so it could collect deposits and grow its own auto-finance business. That could create more competition for Ally, which was spun off from GM in 2006 but remains a key lending partner.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 3

Even government-sponsored enterprise loans, which have seen forbearance rates drop for 24 weeks in a row, saw a slight uptick.

The price increase illustrates the extent to which federal rescue programs and a supply-demand imbalance have been counterweights to economic pressures from the pandemic.

The Structured Finance Association fears Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin may release the government-sponsored enterprises from conservatorship ahead of the change in administration, and that doing so could disrupt the mortgage-backed securities market.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says the partisan bickering over coronavirus relief aid is harming households and businesses and jeopardizing the chances of an economic recovery.

Three major commercial mortgage lenders have teamed up again this year to securitize $871 million in properties in a CMBS deal that provides investors with a highly concentrated loan pool and higher leverage.

Rates could be 50 basis points steeper than the MBA’s current projections, which anticipate the 30-year mortgage will average 3.3% next year, up from nearly 3% this year.

Lenders also increased jumbo product availability as well as rolling out new SOFR-indexed ARMs.

There have been several extensions of the policy since it was put into place as a way to sustain originations amid a wave of forbearance allocated to borrowers with government-related loans.