Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac anticipate continued losses on their holdings of nonprime mortgages and mortgage-backed securities in 2012 and beyond. However, the government-sponsored enterprises will soon shift from run-off mode and consider selling some of the nonperforming assets. The GSEs held a combined $398.45 billion in nonprime purchased/guaranteed mortgages as well as nonprime MBS at the end of 2011, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. That was down 16.3 percent from the end of 2010. Fannie accounted for 56.3 percent of the GSEs' total non-prime holdings, with purchased/ guaranteed loans accounting for 71.4 percent of the GSEs' total non-prime holdings ... [Includes one data chart]

Nationstar Mortgage announced last week that it plans to acquire the $63.0 billion mortgage portfolio and certain other assets from Aurora Bank, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers. The acquisition includes co-investment by a real estate investment trust affiliated with the owner of Nationstar and continues Nationstar’s rapid nonprime servicing growth. The high-touch servicer said it expects the long-pending sale by the bankrupt Lehman to close during the second quarter of 2012. A number of other servicers had expressed interest in bidding on the Aurora portfolio, including Ocwen Financial ...

Walter Investment Management is looking to leverage its subservicing relationships with the government-sponsored enterprises and avoid bidding wars to grow its servicing portfolio, according to officials at the special servicer. The company handled an $86 billion portfolio at the end of 2011, predominantly subserviced for others and added $57 billion in servicing during the year, all on a subservicing basis. Some $750 billion in mortgages are currently in the pipeline to potentially be transferred to special servicers, according to Denmar Dixon, vice chairman and executive vice president at Walter. The loans include potential sales of mortgage servicing rights as well as subservicing opportunities ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission this week filed a lawsuit against three former executives of Thornburg Mortgage regarding disclosure and accounting issues in early 2008. The former executives of the now bankrupt jumbo lender denied the charges and vowed to prevail in court. “Thornburg’s executives schemed to drop a disingenuous annual report into the public realm at the most opportune moment possible while knowing it was merely the calm before the next storm,” said Donald Hoerl, director of the SEC’s Denver regional office. Larry Goldstone and Clay Simmons, the former CEO and chief financial officer of Thornburg, respectively, countered that ...

The Treasury Department announced last week that it will restore Home Affordable Modification Program incentive payments previously withheld from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. The move was prompted by the servicers agreeing to participate in the proposed $25.0 billion servicing settlement and not necessarily by improved HAMP performance. In fact, the consent judgments filed against BofA and Chase specifically cite deficiencies in the servicers’ HAMP performance. “The United States contends that it has certain civil claims based on conduct of the company and its affiliated entities in servicing of mortgage loans,” the complaint against each servicer states, later citing implementation of the Making Home Affordable Program and all of its components, among other deficiencies ...

RPM Mortgage announced last week that it is offering jumbos with balances of up to $2.5 million for no-limit cash-out refinances or home purchase. Fully amortized and interest-only payment options are available. The lender said it will hold the loans in portfolio. “Between extremely low interest rates and smart prices for homes, either on the move-up market or creating liquidity for investment purposes, this product has the ability to serve both types of borrowers,” said Rob Hirt, CEO of RPM Mortgage. “This exclusive RPM product was eleven months in the making and is our contribution toward helping the real estate market to get back on its feet.” [Includes three briefs]

Flagstar Bank’s recent $133 million settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve fraudulent FHA lending practices could increase lender overlays on the FHA product, resulting in fewer borrowers being able to qualify for an FHA-insured loan, according to analysts. The Flagstar settlement, which came in the wake of the $25 billion national settlement between servicers and state and federal agencies, exacerbates the situation for lenders that already have previous concerns about the severity of FHA fines, including treble damages, for violations of FHA’s highly complex and technical rules, analysts said. Whatever relief FHA lenders may have drawn from the robo-signing settlement was ...

Failure by the five largest FHA mortgage servicers to establish effective controls and to comply with FHA foreclosure procedures resulted in improper servicing practices that may have exposed them to liability under the False Claims Act, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General concluded in separate, recently released audits. The HUD-OIG audits of the top five FHA servicers – Bank of America, Ally Financial, Wells Fargo, CitiMortgage and JPMorgan Chase – revealed a variety of questionable foreclosure practices involving the use of foreclosure “mills” and robo-signing of sworn documents in thousands of foreclosures throughout the country. The audits were ...

Significant price cuts to the FHA’s Streamline Refinance Program will not hurt the Mortgage Mutual Insurance Fund but will, in fact, benefit from the lower pricing in the long term, said Acting FHA Commissioner Carol Galante.Testifying last week before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies, Galante said the pricing cuts to encourage streamline refinancing as well as upfront and annual mortgage insurance premium increases for forward and jumbo mortgages will generate an additional $1 billion this fiscal year and next, in addition to projections in the president’s FY2013 budget. According to Galante, the FY2013 budget proposal ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued new guidance allowing non-FHA mortgage loans to qualify for an FHA refinance loan if the lender or investor agrees to write off the unpaid principal balance of the original first-lien mortgage by at least 10 percent. The guidance expands last year’s enhancements to the FHA Short Refinance program, which allowed responsible homeowners with negative equity to refinance into a 30-year, fixed-rate FHA loan. It also extends the program until Dec. 31, 2014. Under the latest changes, underwater borrowers who may have been delinquent ...