The higher loan limits take effect Jan. 1. Sullivan said consumers are likely contacting the resource center to get in last-minute questions.

We’re hearing more chatter of mortgage lenders starting a loan officer “scorecard” approach to grading their salesmen and women...

The bank's expansion into government lending comes after a noticeable decline in its share price...

No purchase price was disclosed. The deal was first hinted at Friday on IMFnews.

The group’s combined production-related income fell a lot more than their actual origination volume, which was down 5.8 percent from the second quarter...

The new approach is expected to be a more cost-effective route than going through the repeated repurchase requests that have plagued lenders over the years.

A number of financial indicators and documents suggest that Fannie Mae was not in the dire straits reported to justify its takeover, according to a new white paper. Adam Spittler, GSE activist investor, along with Mike Ciklin, owner of a small law firm specializing in MBS, and G. Stevenson Smith, an accounting professor specializing in fraud, published a white paper saying they reviewed financial statements to better understand the viability of the GSE from 2007 to 2014.

Fannie Mae recently said that in 2016 it would announce details about its plans to let lenders pay a risk fee as an alternative to repurchase for some of the defective loans it receives. While both GSEs have already put some remedies for defects in place, this alternative lets the lender pay a fee for some loans labeled defective, instead of being asked to repurchase the loan. …

GSE foreclosure moratorium. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will suspend foreclosures for 17 days in its annual eviction moratorium. From Dec. 18, 2015, through Jan. 3, 2016, there will be no evictions.“As we have done in past years, we are suspending evictions during the holidays,” said Joy Cianci, Senior Vice President of Credit Portfolio Management for Fannie Mae. “We also continue to remind homeowners who may be struggling with their mortgages to reach out for help. Options are available to avoid foreclosure, and we want to help pursue those options whenever possible. Freddie makes single-family loan-level data on all fixed-rate mortgages publicly available....

Fannie Mae is reaching out to the last of the pack of borrowers looking to modify their loans and announced a policy change to its Servicing Management Default Underwriter tool that is aimed at qualifying more borrowers for foreclosure prevention assistance. Servicers use the tool to determine what foreclosure prevention options are available to help a borrower facing financial difficulty. The change requires servicers to now calculate the borrower’s full mortgage obligation, including the outstanding principal balance, past due interest and other arrearages, to determine eligibility for a Fannie Mae Standard Modification or Streamlined Modification. Prior to the change, only the outstanding principal balance was used.