Data initiatives meant to streamline technological innovations and provide better information are actually giving mortgage lenders a hard time. A new report by Fannie Mae showed that 74 percent of lenders agree that attempts to standardize data are needed, but many run into challenges in implementation.
Freddie Mac is offering a new cash benefit to sellers of loans that fall in a narrow band of loan sizes that typically are used for specified MBS pools. The new category targeted for cash deliveries are 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with loan amounts ranging from $175,000 to $200,000.
Departing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen quietly rode off into the sunset this week, with the Fed’s Open Market Committee deciding to keep interest rates unchanged, as expected. The fed funds target range remains at 1.25 percent to 1.50 percent.
The National Association of Realtors this week asked the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower the MBS guarantee fees charged by the two government-sponsored enterprises, citing lower corporate tax rates ushered in under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had one of their slowest quarters ever in new credit-risk transfer deals late in 2017, but ended the year with record output all the same.
Ginnie Mae would become the linchpin of the conventional secondary mortgage market of the future, providing an explicit government guarantee for MBS issued by one of several new entities, under a plan being drafted by Senate Republicans.
The en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Wednesday in favor of PHH Mortgage in its long-running legal dispute with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over issues tied to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau threw a substantial bone to mortgage lenders and servicers, issuing a formal request for information on the civil investigative demands it has used extensively, and controversially, under the leadership of its former director, Richard Cordray.
The mortgage servicing rules promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continue to be a source of headaches for many in the industry, particularly in the context of bankruptcy proceedings. Late last week, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition wrote CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, detailing three of its primary concerns in this regard.
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