While residential mortgage lenders are facing tough headwinds driven by rising interest rates and low housing volume, the current market presents opportunities for savvy investors looking at mortgage servicing rights (“MSRs”). The current mortgage market is supported by non-bank mortgage originators and servicers who lack the same access to capital and liquidity as traditional banks.

In early February 2023, as part of its broader mission to support and sustain the financing of affordable single family and multifamily housing for all Americans, Ginnie Mae further refined its focus on social responsibility in the mortgage-backed security (MBS) market by launching an enhanced Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) disclosure as part of its Ginnie Mae MBS program.  Continue Reading Ginnie Mae Enhances LMI Disclosure, Accommodating Investor Interest in ESG

Any day now, maybe even today, Ginnie Mae will announce the details on its Pass-Through Assistance Program (“PTAP”), through which Ginnie Mae will provide a liquidity facility for issuers that need help meeting their obligation as issuers to pass-through payments of regularly scheduled payments of principal and interest, regardless of whether the loans are subject to forbearance.  While quickly trying to finalize PTAP program documents, on Monday April 7th, Ginnie Mae announced that it would recognize servicing advance financing facilities under its Acknowledgement Agreement. Previously, Ginnie Mae would not recognize a servicing advance receivable as  an independent component of mortgage servicing rights related to loans pooled into Ginnie Mae securities (“MSRs”).  This new recognition improves the ability of servicers to finance a valuable income stream, which has proven increasingly costly as the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly challenged liquidity in the housing market. But this recognition comes with limitations, which we detail below.

BACKGROUND

Like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae permits its servicers, called “issuers,” to grant a security interest in their MSRs to secure a commercial loan. Each also used its version of a master form Acknowledgment Agreement to spell out the relative rights and obligations of the servicer, the secured creditor and Ginnie Mae. Unlike Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, however, Ginnie Mae does not permit a servicer to grant a security interest in its MSRs to one secured creditor and a security interest in its servicing advance receivables to another; only one Acknowledgment Agreement by servicer is permitted by Ginnie Mae.

This difference in treatment is in part due to the fact that, unlike Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae does not itself reimburse servicers for advances. Servicers instead must instead look to subsequent mortgagor payments and mortgage insurance and guaranty proceeds on the underlying pooled mortgage loans. Moreover, a secured creditor is afforded a very “skinny” cure right, if a Ginnie Mae servicer defaults in its pass-through obligations. If the secured creditor fails to cure the monetary default (within one business day), its security interest is automatically extinguished. Ginnie Mae will neither reimburse the secured creditor for its outstanding debt, either directly or indirectly though net sales proceeds, nor require the successor servicer to remit to the secured creditor reimbursement of servicing advances as and when received.Continue Reading Modest Improvements: Ginnie Mae’s Servicing Advance Facility Recognition

On October 30, 2019, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton announced that the SEC will review its RMBS asset-level disclosure requirements with “an eye toward facilitating SEC-registered offerings.”   The announcement notes the absence of SEC-registered RMBS securitizations in recent years and seeks input from investors, issuers and other market participants with respect to several questions posed in