The Mortgage Bankers Association took issue this week with two proposals pending before the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision that could have negative repercussions on U.S. mortgage financing and on American homebuyers. Back in December, the Basel Committee put out a “consultative document” that included proposed revisions to its Standardized Approach for credit risk, including updated risk-weight calibrations. As applied to the U.S. ...

Nomura Holdings is unlikely to suffer a hit in ratings because of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s mortgage-backed securities lawsuit, but the litigation may yet prove costly to the Japanese financial holding company, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings. Nomura went to trial on March 16 to defend itself against allegations that it misrepresented the underlying asset quality of MBS it sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to the financial crisis ...

During 4Q14 Javelin Mortgage Investment sold all of its holdings of prime, fixed-rate, senior bonds from new-issue jumbo MBS – $119.6 million of non-agency product in total.

Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, notes that the Quicken Loans’ call-center model can be an accepted alternative to local mortgage branches.

Although HARP originations plunged by 76 percent last year, the FHFA may keep the program alive.

Total VA volume for the entire year was $112.0 billion in purchase and refinance loans.

Glenview is bullish on Ocwen but it also owns a large stake in the nonbank...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to turn their focus in loan-quality reviews to more freshly originated mortgages, the vast majority of which are current. A new Inside The GSEs analysis of disclosures made by the GSEs to the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that most of the lender repurchases made in 2014 continued to be associated with older, pre-crisis loans. But the biggest volume of pending and unresolved buyback demands were tied to loans securitized in 2013 and 2014. Sellers repurchased or provided indemnification on some $4.046 billion of mortgages during 2014, the disclosures reveal. They were split roughly evenly between Freddie ($2.031 billion) and Fannie ($2.014 billion)...[includes exclusive chart]

A bill to replace the Federal Housing Finance Agency with a beefed up Ginnie Mae and set Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a path to liquidation has been reintroduced in the House. The Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act was first introduced in July 2014 to wind down Fannie and Freddie over a five-year timeframe. Reps. John Delaney, D-MD, John Carney, D-DE, and Jim Himes, D-CT, are the lead sponsors of the measure. They said the bill takes the best ideas from both parties to create a housing finance system that combines the strengths of the private and public sectors.The congressmen agreed that things need to be done differently.

Over the past month, Ocwen Financial has unveiled agreements to sell roughly $89.4 billion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac servicing rights – transactions that require approval from not only the GSEs, but their regulator/conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.To date, the FHFA has made no public statements regarding Ocwen’s sales and isn’t likely to until it actually makes an approval or denial.Based on the transactions that have been announced since Feb. 23, there is little to indicate that the deals won’t pass regulatory muster. The receivables being off-loaded by the troubled servicer are considered to be pristine in nature and with little in the way of delinquencies.