Ginnie Mae – The Daily Tearsheet

Morning Report: Ginnie Mae extends help to servicers

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	2769	-10.1
Oil (WTI)	23.03	0.29
10 year government bond yield		0.75%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		3.37%

Stocks are down this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are flattish

As the COVID-19 crisis seems to have peaked, Washington is starting to think about how to get people back to work and the economy restarted. Dr. Fauci discussed that we could start reopening parts of the economy next month, although we have seen some instances overseas where the virus re-started.

Earnings season starts this week with the big banks all reporting. Analysts don’t have a clue as to how to handle guidance in this environment. The big question with the banks will be how many borrowers are requesting forbearance. So far, no help seems to be coming, at least from Fannie and FHFA.

JP Morgan has tightened up credit requirements – instituting minimum FICOs of 700 and minimum down payments of 20%. This doesn’t apply to its low income programs (JPM doesn’t really do FHA) but this is a good indication of where things are headed across the industry. A massive tightening of mortgage credit was definitely NOT what Congress had in mind when it drafted the CARES Act, but the unintended consequences are probably not going to stop there.

Good news for Ginnie Mae servicers: Ginnie Mae will advance P&I payments for delinquent borrowers under the Pass-Through Assistance Program (PTAP). Servicers can request once per month for Ginnie to advance P&I on their MBS. Servicers would still have to handle escrows. Prepayments should help Ginnie servicers get through April, and maybe even May. It won’t solve the issue for Fannie and Freddie issuers, but it is a start.

Freddie Mac is extending further help to borrowers affected by COVID-19 including loan modifications typically only used during natural disasters.

Morning Report: Strong jobs report

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	2928	9
Eurostoxx index	390.26	-0.72
Oil (WTI)	61.85	0.04
10 year government bond yield		2.56%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		4.20%

Stocks are higher after the strong payroll number. Bonds and MBS are up small.

Jobs report data dump:

Nonfarm payrolls up 263,000
Unemployment rate 3.6%
Labor Force participation rate 62.8%
Average hourly earnings up 0.2% MOM / 3.2% YOY
Employment – Population ratio 60.8%

Overall it was a Goldilocks report for the markets. Stocks are happy about the payroll number while bonds like the wage data. Note the unemployment rate is at the lowest level since Jimi Hendrix did the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock. We saw an uptick in construction workers as well as health care.

The Washington Post noted how difficult finding truck drivers has become: McClane Company is a large trucking and warehouse firm that specializes in moving food and grocery items around the country. They are advertising truck driving jobs for $70,000 a year and a $6,000 sign on bonus in Jessup, Pennsylvania, but even at that level of pay it’s been tough to get enough people in the door.

Steve Moore withdrew his name from consideration to join the Fed after it appeared the he wouldn’t have the votes to get confirmed. Establishment Republicans are not ready for non-traditional types to join the Fed, though it might be a good thing, if only to break the group-think that goes on there.

Ginnie Mae is taking a look at 90%+ LTV cash out refinancings. They put out a request for input. Initially, they were looking at the prepay speeds for VA IRRRL loans, and how it was affecting GNMA MBS investors, but it looks like they are now broadening their focus as VA loans still have higher prepay speeds than comparable FHA or Fannie / Freddie loans. Specifically, VA refis occur earlier than FHA refis, and high LTV VA cashouts have higher prepay speeds than comparable FHA cash-outs. FHA cash outs are limited to 85% LTV, while VAs can go up to 97.5%, and the funding fee can be financed. It looks like GNMA is not looking at tightening the restrictions for VA refis, but it is more interested in perhaps creating new GII pools for shorter duration loans (i.e. fast prepays).

Morning Report: Ginnie is increasing scrutiny of non-bank lenders

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	2642	0
Eurostoxx index	357.3	2.93
Oil (WTI)	52.35	0.36
10 year government bond yield		2.73%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		4.62%

Stocks are flat as we begin the FOMC meeting. Bonds and MBS are up small.

Despite the end of the shutdown, we will have to wait for economic data. Two big reports this week – GDP and personal incomes – have been delayed.

Economic activity picked up in December, according to the Chicago Fed National Activity Index. Production-related indicators and employment drove the increase. Note that the CFNAI is a meta-index of a number of announced economic indices, and the government shutdown has decreased the amount of data going into the index. We’ll see the same effect next month as well, so the index won’t be as accurate as it usually is. Regardless, the CFNAI is an amalgamation of previously released data, so it doesn’t move markets.

Ex-Fed Head Narayana Kochlerakota thinks the Fed should consider easing at the next meeting. His argument is that the Fed has been falling short in maintaining inflation at its 2% target and that notwithstanding the latest unemployment data we are still not at full employment. He is looking at the percentage of prime age people (age 25-54) who are currently employed. We are just south of 80%, and were closer to 82% during the late 90s. Given that the number of prime age people in the US is roughly 100MM, then we have about 2 million more jobs to create in order to get to back to where we want to be. Interestingly, he not only advocates maintaining the current balance sheet, he thinks it should increase about 4% a year to grow in lockstep with the economy.

Guess what has been one of the best performing assets so far this year (almost tripled in under a month). If you guessed the GSEs, you would be correct. The market is betting that shareholders won’t get wiped out when / if housing reform happens this year. Check out this chart of Fannie Mae:

Ginnie Mae is stepping up oversight of its partners, particularly non-bank lenders, telling some that they must improve some financial metrics before they will be granted more commitment authority, which is the ability to securitize FHA and VA loans. The government is concerned that non-bank lenders have replaced a lot of the traditional banks in servicing government loans. Indeed, they have – nonbanks now service 61% of government loans, up from 34% at the end of 2014. FHA was largely a backwater of the mortgage market pre-crisis, however post crisis, it has picked up the load that subprime left. Servicers for government loans have a lot more liquidity demands than servicers for GSE loans – and in a downturn the advances liability could take out undercapitalized mortgage bankers. VA lenders can face what is called no-bid risk, which can be a disaster for many servicers without a line of credit to cover advances and loan buyouts.