Firm acquires loans from two mortgage originators
Ellington Financial has announced completing a $426 million securitization backed by a pool of non-qualified mortgage loans.
The firm said it originally acquired a majority of non-QM loans from LendSure Mortgage and American Heritage Lending – mortgage originators in which Ellington holds equity investments.
Rating agencies Fitch and KBRA both gave the transaction’s senior tranche AAA ratings. Ellington retained certain tranches of the securitization to comply with credit risk retention rules. It also maintained the option to call the securitization at any time following the optional redemption date.
Read more: Reverse mortgage lender Longbridge preps first non-agency MBS
Last August, Longbridge Financial, a reverse mortgage lender majority-owned by Ellington and Homepoint, announced a $229 million non-agency MBS backed by proprietary loans. A month before that, Ellington closed a $331.8 million MBS secured by non-QM loans.
According to a report from Inside Mortgage Finance, non-agency MBS issuance declined 15.4% quarter over quarter to $42.52 billion in Q1 2022. The slump was primarily due to the 16.3% decline in prime non-agency MBS issuance, which fell to $20.87 billion in the first quarter.
