It was thought that with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau working on a new regulation to clarify key portions of the TRID integrated-disclosure rule and assignee liability that the scratch-and-dent market in TRID-defective loans would grind to a halt. But that’s not how it’s turned out. According to investors in “S&D” TRID mortgages and traders who play in the space, auctions of mortgages with errors (of all sorts) have continued...

Investors who are suing the government over the terms of the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said the 53 documents recently made public solidify their claim that the government-sponsored enterprises had plenty of capital and a government bailout was unnecessary. The Treasury Department provided the documents to plaintiffs last week as part of a court case in Kentucky. “The newly de-designated documents also suggest...

A heated partisan debate broke out during a House subcommittee hearing late last week on whether multi-billion dollar settlements designed to resolve legacy MBS cases undermine Congress’ power to appropriate funds. Democrats and Republicans on the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations debated whether federal law allows banks to donate money to third-party charities to fulfill some of its settlement obligations. Ranking Minority member Al Green, D-TX, said...

Wells Fargo reported an 11.7 percent increase in its conventional-conforming originations during the first quarter, but the company’s GSE loan sales fell 12.2 percent on a sequential basis – quite a differential.

The lender allegedly focused on profit and growth at the expense of loan quality and knew about the inefficiencies in 39 of its 125 branches, charges it denies.

The Texas portion of the receivables has been measured at 60.5 percent with Colorado a distant second at 13.6 percent.

Let's face it: most banks are just chicken to hold mortgages in portfolio unless they're jumbos...

California remained the top state for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac activity in the first three months of 2016 with volume reaching $36.18 billion, three times as much as Texas, which trailed in second place with $12.43 billion in volume. However, GSE activity in California saw a 23.8 percent decline from the previous quarter while volume in Texas was up by 5.2 percent, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. In California, the average Fannie and Freddie loan was $307,302 in line with the state’s 2015 average of $310,185. That number followed only Hawaii, which had an average loan size of $362,236 and the District of Columbia, which was $336,268.

Bank of America escaped having to pay $1.2 billion in penalties when a federal appeals court dismissed the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s allegations of fraud this week. The appeal stemmed from a 2013 verdict stating that Countrywide Home Loans, a subsidiary of BofA, was liable for damages caused by selling bad loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the financial crisis. Whether or not a breach of contract can also support a claim for fraud was the argument and primary factor in the judge’s decision. It seems that even if a loan seller is guilty of an intentional breach of contract, it’s not considered fraud.

Top single-family executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac described new technology upgrades and the success of their credit-risk transfer programs during remarks at last week’s secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Andrew Bon Salle, executive vice-president for single-family business at Fannie, said the GSE is working to enhance the customer experience and make doing business with the company simpler and more certain. He said customers are reporting sharp gains in efficiency from Fannie’s collateral underwriting tool, and a new version of Desktop Underwriter will be rolled out next month. A key feature in version 10.0 of DU is the inclusion of trended credit data.