Hundreds of community banks, credit unions and community development financial intuitions within the Federal Home Loan Bank system will be adversely impacted and even face expulsion from the FHLBanks if a proposed Federal Housing Finance Agency rule change goes into effect, say rule opponents. The FHFA’s proposal, issued earlier this month, would change the FHLBank membership qualifications by imposing an ongoing asset test on FHLB members, requiring that they track and report on the mortgage-related assets they hold on their books.

The Senate voted this week to approve the nomination of Laura Wertheimer to be the newest Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Wertheimer, a Washington, DC, securities lawyer in private practice, was nominated by President Obama in May to replace Steve Linick, who resigned in the summer of 2013 to serve as the State Department’s IG.

Congress should put the screws to the Treasury Department to disclose all documents pertaining to the origins of the Obama administration’s controversial “net-worth sweep” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits, according to a coalition of right-leaning public policy groups. In a letter dispatched late this week to the top Republican and Democrat of the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, the 17 groups led by the Competitive Enterprise Institute urged lawmakers to intervene to impose transparency over what GSE shareholders consider an extra-legal maneuver by the executive branch.

Founded in 1996, Regency is owned and operated by its founders Quentin Keefe and Maureen Lemay. Both will continue in their present positions.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were both active this week with multifamily MBS transactions, but they’ll have to double-time it if they plan to match last year’s levels. The odds are against them. Fannie’s multifamily new business volume came to $13.8 billion through August 2014, compared with $20.4 billion the year before. The government-sponsored enterprise would have to crank out another $15 billion in the last four months of 2014 to match the 2013 total of $28.8 billion. For rival Freddie, multifamily new business activity totaled...

Commercial banks hate mortgages. No, they don't. Yes, they do. No they don't. Yes, they do...

Fitch Ratings this week proposed changes in how it models home prices for loans to be included in new non-agency MBS. The change means more regions being classified as having sustainable home prices, which could lead to lower credit enhancement requirements on new securities. “The updated Sustainable Home Price model shows a stronger relationship to historical home prices and effectively distinguishes between periods of sustainable and unsustainable home prices,” the rating service said. “Under the new methodology, Fitch’s estimation of overvaluation is typically lower than in the previous model build.” Fitch has incorporated...

Moody’s Investors Service – which has been on the sidelines in the sputtering jumbo MBS market this year – has edged up to become the most active rating service in the non-mortgage ABS market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Moody’s rated 71 ABS over the first half of the year, deals with a total issuance volume of $66.15 billion. That represented 64.5 percent of total non-mortgage ABS issued in the first six months of 2014. Moody’s had its biggest market shares in vehicle finance ABS and student loan deals. Standard & Poor’s ranked...[Includes two data charts]

Although investors continue to pay premium – or close to it – prices for newly originated mortgage servicing rights, very few residential lenders have tried to securitize the underlying cash flows, leaving some market observers scratching their heads. “There are very few deals out there that I’m aware of,” said one servicing advisor, requesting his name not be used. “If a company needs cash, it’s a good option, but there’s just not much going on.” So far this year, just a handful of MSR-backed bonds have come...

The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee this week met Wall Street’s expectations that it will continue to plow principal payments from its holdings of agency MBS back into agency MBS until sometime after the central bank decides to raise its federal funds target range. “The timing will depend on how economic and financial conditions and the economic outlook evolve,” said the FOMC after its two-day meeting concluded Wednesday afternoon. In the meantime, the Fed’s tapering of its quantitative easing program will continue...