After an eight-year hiatus, the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco announced last week it would renew its participation in the Mortgage Partnership Finance program, which is managed by the FHLBank of Chicago. Starting in 2014, the San Francisco Bank will purchase conventional, conforming fixed-rate mortgages and FHA/VA products, as well as purchase fixed-rate loans from its members for sale to Fannie Mae through the MPF Xtra program.

Fannie Mae officials said this week their decision to study from Freddie Mac’s inaugural risk-sharing transaction prompted them to take the time to obtain a rating on the deal. Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities Series 2013-C01 is scheduled to close on Oct. 24, according to a presale report released late last week by Fitch Ratings.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week made the common securitization platform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a legal entity, filing paperwork with Delaware’s Division of Corporations, creating a limited liability company called Common Securitization Solutions LLC. The new limited liability company will be jointly owned by the two GSEs and will assume Fannie’s and Freddie’s securitization functions.

GSEs Issue Government Shutdown Guidance. Freddie Mac this week followed Fannie Mae in issuing new, temporary guidelines to servicers and sellers of single-family mortgages as the nation began its second week of the government shutdown. The GSEs have temporarily revised their selling guidelines to permit lenders to verify Social Security and IRS transcripts after the closing but before the delivery date of the loan.“Servicers can offer unemployment forbearance to borrowers that have a financial hardship as a result of the shutdown and must suspend credit reporting for those borrowers,” said Fannie.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized $285 billion of single-family mortgages during the third quarter, an almost 16 percent drop from the previous three-month period. As for the outlook for the fourth quarter, the industry is nervous.

Over the past year, some lenders have complained privately about the presence of enforcement attorneys during examinations, telling Inside Mortgage Finance that it can be intimidating to staff.

With most of FHA's staff on furlough, the private mortgage insurance sector sees an opportunity to gain business.

A company owned by Lone Star appears to have won the bid on Flagstar MSRs. Meanwhile, MountainView hits the market with a new deal.

Members of the House believe FHFA does not have the legal authority under HERA to reduce GSE loan limits.

Despite continuing growth in purchase-mortgage production, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a marked decline in their overall business during the third quarter of 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized $284.9 billion of single-family mortgages during the third quarter, a 15.6 percent drop from the previous three-month period. It marked the lowest quarterly production for the GSEs since the second quarter of last year and it was attributable to a sharp drop in refinance activity. Fannie and Freddie securitized...[Includes three data charts]