Tag Archives: Fitch Ratings

Weeks ahead of the anticipated release of Ocwen's fourth-quarter earnings report, CEO Ron Faris has issued a notice that the company expects to see a loss based on mounting regulatory pressures, expenses, and a recent ratings downgrade by a major credit ratings agency.

In a report released Monday morning, Fitch outlined five big events—all of which have taken place in the past few months—that, taken together, "could have a relatively meaningful impact on home buyer psychology, pent-up demand and housing trends in 2015 and beyond," the company says.

While the onslaught of new mortgage regulations in the last year has created headaches for lenders, it's had a clear positive impact in one area, Fitch Ratings says in a new report: the residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) sector. In its latest look at the RMBS segment, the company says that while the market still has some rebuilding left to do, it "has seen some rather substantial improvements of late," owing in large part to improved loan underwriting standards in recent years.

After trudging along a sluggish track in 2014, the market for new homes is projected to make a comeback next year, Fitch Ratings says in a new forecast.

Encouraging economic statistics of late are pushing U.S. Housing toward more pronounced economic growth in 2015, according to the lates version of the “Chalk Line” released by Fitch Ratings on Tuesday.

Annualized liquidations of United States RMBS loans increased last quarter for the first time in seven quarters, according to a report issued Monday by Fitch Ratings. The conditional default rate increased in Q2 2014 to 4.92 percent after nearly two years of declines from 9.76 percent in Q2 2012. The previous decline was spurred on by shrinking inventories of distressed properties and a decrease in the use of short sales.

A new report from Fitch Ratings found that U.S. prime jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issued since the start of 2010 are unlikely to see a "meaningful increase in prepayments, even if interest rates stay low." The company believes that the lack of prepayments will result in an increased average life of the mortgages in these trusts, further increasing the period of default risk.

The highest delinquency to date of any post-crisis residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) doesn't indicate any trend of future delinquencies, according to an analysis by Fitch Ratings. The delinquency, according to the company, came about due to a transfer of servicing, and doesn't point to any widespread post-crisis late payment increases.

One of the country's biggest credit ratings agencies has put Green Tree Servicing on negative watch following a report that the company failed several compliance metrics established by the 2012 National Mortgage Settlement. Fitch Ratings announced it is changing Green Tree's servicer grades to "Rating Watch Negative," citing "ongoing concerns with Green Tree's rapid growth and portfolio integration."

Market analysts are dialing back on their expectations for the housing sector this year following reports of continued sluggishness in what should have been the start of a busier season. Sales of both new and existing homes in March fell short of expectations, dashing optimistic projections of a rebound following the end of an unusually harsh winter.