Building on the success of its previously issued Structured Agency Credit Risk debt notes, expect Freddie Mac to continue to crank out additional risk-sharing deals, while the GSE pursues reinsurance opportunities to further mitigate risk, say company officials and industry observers. Last week, Freddie announced it has reduced taxpayer exposure by obtaining insurance policies for a combined maximum of $269.5 million of losses to a portion of the credit risk associated with a pool of single-family loans funded in the first quarter of 2013. The GSE said the policies were underwritten by a group of well-capitalized and well-established insurers and reinsurers and were obtained under Freddie’s Agency Credit Insurance Structure, which has attracted private capital from non-mortgage guaranty insurers and reinsurers.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should immediately suspend assessments of compensatory fees for servicers that miss GSE foreclosure timeframes, according to a new letter from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Instead, MBA is offering to create a plan with a “more holistic method of identifying and penalizing servicer under-performance.” In correspondence dispatched to FHFA Director Mel Watt this week, MBA President and CEO David Stevens says the imposition of compensatory fees has morphed into a risk-sharing mechanism that shifts the costs of the prolonged foreclosure process from the GSEs onto mortgage servicers.

Freddie Mac Multifamily now will purchase from its Targeted Affordable Housing lender network multifamily tax-exempt loans, and aggregate and securitize them into a new series called M-Deals, the GSE announced last week. The move is in concert with the firm’s launch of a new initiative – the Direct Purchase of Tax-Exempt Loans – to help keep rental housing affordable for lower income families and increase cost-effective financing for tax-exempt multifamily properties. Freddie explained these are tax-exempt loans issued by a city, county or state housing finance entity for apartments that have affordable rents for lower income individuals.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will begin to collect additional, more specific personal information on borrowers and loans as part of the National Mortgage Database project the agency is developing in concert with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. An FHFA announcement and request for comment published in the April 28 Federal Register notes that under a “revised system of records,” the database will begin collecting demographic and personal contact info for borrowers and their households, as well as loan-level data on mortgage performance.

Officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enthusiastically jumped on board a high-profile effort begun by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week to promote eClosings as a way to reduce or eliminate many of the “pain points” associated with the mortgage closing process. At a public forum at its headquarters in Washington, DC, the CFPB announced it would launch a new, voluntary pilot project later this year that supporters hope will re-invigorate government housing agency officials, mortgage bankers and industry technology representatives and take their previous efforts related to eMortgages to a much higher level.

KBW: Fannie, Freddie Emerging From Conservatorship ‘Increasingly Plausible.’ The battle over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely will rage on for the rest of the decade, but it’s “increasingly plausible” that the two government-controlled mortgage giants will emerge from conservatorship, according to a new report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. However, KBW Analyst Brian Gardner readily admits that the firm is unsure “how or when” the Treasury Department or Federal Housing Finance Agency can legally take the two out of conservatorship.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $45.4 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the month of April, a 20.6 percent increase from March, reversing more than a year-long streak of declines, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis. However, April’s MBS issuance was down 63.0 percent from the same period a year ago.Top-ranked Wells Fargo’s Fannie and Freddie securitization, at $6.28 billion, rose by 23.1 percent on a monthly basis but dropped 73.3 percent year-to-date.

The architects of the ambitious bipartisan housing-finance reform bill in the Senate have put considerable emphasis on preserving access to the new secondary-mortgage market for smaller lenders. They may not have it right yet. According to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the so-called small lender mutual envisioned by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, would face significant challenges in a new mortgage-finance world where large institutions could vertically integrate ...

Technology vendor Ellie Mae will not compensate its mortgage customers for the recent shutdown of its loan origination software platform, which delayed closings nationwide, according to customers affected by the situation. But that doesn't mean the problem won’t cost Ellie Mae any money. During an earnings call this week, company executives said the firm will accelerate spending on technology upgrades, estimating that its total capital expenditures this year will range between ...

The GSEs continued to reduce their footprint in global debt markets during the fourth quarter of 2013, with debt outstanding and issuance down from the same period year ago. Fannie Mae’s, Freddie Mac’s and the Federal Home Loan Banks’ combined debt outstanding was $1.814 billion during the period ending Dec. 31, 2013, down 0.02 percent from the third quarter and down 2.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. Fannie issued $45.5 billion in new debt during the fourth quarter, a 34.9 percent decrease from the third quarter.