The uphill climb for the Congressman who would be the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency got a little steeper last week following a lackluster confirmation performance that did not appear to win over Republican critics. Both in his prepared testimony and during questioning by members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, placed a heavy emphasis on his biographical details, but he was light on mortgage-finance policy specifics. Republicans pressed hard on his technical qualifications for the job of FHFA director. “The Housing and Economic Recovery Act clearly defines...

A high percentage of FHA-insured mortgage loans were deemed unacceptable after a post-endorsement review performed by the FHA revealed material defects that apparently went undetected at the time the loans were approved, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In a recent report by HUD’s Office of Lender Activities and Program Compliance, 44 percent of 6,251 single-family mortgage loans that underwent post-endorsement loan reviews in the first quarter of 2013 were found initially unacceptable. Under the FHA’s three-tier rating system, loans are rated as “conforming,” “deficient” or “unacceptable.” The review found...

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors unanimously issued a revised Basel III final rule this week that abandons the proposed changes to the risk-weighting of residential mortgages, but presses ahead with the proposed new treatment of mortgage servicing rights. In backing off the proposed changes for residential mortgages, Fed officials cited community bank concerns about the complexity of calculating loan-to-value ratios under the proposed regime. They also emphasized concerns about the unknown interaction the proposed changes would have with other mortgage-related rulemakings confronting the industry, most notably the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s “qualified mortgage” standard as well as the qualified residential mortgage definition, which is still in development by federal regulators. “In light of new regulations designed to improve the quality of mortgage underwriting as well as continued uncertainty regarding the aggregate impact of pending mortgage-related rulemakings, the draft final rule does not include...

Japanese investors increased their holdings of agency MBS by $32 billion and even boosted their non-agency MBS investments by $1.4 billion.

Although the recent spike in rates spooked some players in the non-agency market, conduits like Redwood Trust and Credit Suisse are still in the hunt for new customers.

Gordon Albrecht, executive vice president for FCI Lender Services, said, “The less the banks lend, for whatever reason, the more goes to private-money firms.”

When rates shot up quickly, were some MBS investors caught behind the eight-ball?

A former federal prosecutor, Linick is credited with creating the agency’s Office of Inspector General from the ground up.

Spreads have widened significantly on non-agency jumbo MBS in recent weeks, cutting into issuers’ profits.

According to exclusive figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Trends, Citigroup had $748 million of disputed buybacks with the GSEs at March 31.