The GSE risk-sharing market is building momentum and investors indicate there is a growing demand for this product going forward, industry insiders told attendees of an Urban Institute/CoreLogic housing forum last week. In its most recent strategic plan for the GSEs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce their exposure to risk by tripling the amount of credit-risk transfers they conduct on their single-family business from $30 billion last year to $90 billion in 2014.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt will be on the hot seat next week when he is slated to testify before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. The oversight hearing – titled “The Federal Housing Finance Agency: Balancing Stability, Growth, and Affordability in the Mortgage Market” has Watt listed as the only witness when the committee convenes on Wed., Nov. 19, at 10 a.m.

Expect GSE reform to remain a key focus of Congress following the mid-term election Republican takeover of the Senate and vast expansion in its House majority. However, industry observers warn that it remains to be seen whether focus will translate into legislative action during the 114th Congress as the new leadership structure remains in flux.

Effective and lasting GSE reform cannot be accomplished without Congress taking decisive action and the housing finance market’s status quo is unsustainable in the long term, according to the former head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute forum late this week, former FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco warned attendees to expect comprehensive and lasting housing finance reform to remain stalled unless lawmakers pass a bill that the president will sign.

And there could be some good news on lower LLPAs. Fannie said that come May 2015, it will change how it treats loans where there are two or more borrowers...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the government-sponsored enterprise model are flawed beyond repair, so expect comprehensive housing finance reform to remain stalled until lawmakers and the chief executive take action, according to the former head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute forum this week, former FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, now a housing fellow at the Milken Institute, said the structure of the GSE conservatorships and the Treasury support agreement backing them requires Congressional intervention. “The answer to the question ‘what happens next?’ is...

Shopping for credit ratings is alive and well despite the laws and regulations that have been put in place to curb the practice, but so far credit rating agencies have not lowered their standards, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings. “Arrangers and issuers of structured debt continue to tightly control the selection of credit rating agencies,” Morningstar said in a recent analysis. But information quality and transparency fall short of investor expectations, and the general interests of the key stakeholders remain somewhat misaligned, the rating service said. Arrangers and issuers of residential MBS, non-mortgage ABS and commercial MBS continue...

Through the first nine months of 2014, Freddie Mac securitized $7.0 billion of re-performing and modified single-family loans, a figure that towers over its crosstown rival Fannie Mae. Since 2011, Freddie has issued roughly $12 billion in securities backed by re-performing loans. So what’s Fannie’s problem in this area? That’s hard to say. A spokesman for the government-owned mortgage giant said the company has yet to undertake any securitizations of formerly delinquent loans, and isn’t sure if or when it will. Then again, Fannie – unlike Freddie – has...

The National Credit Union Administration this week sued Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., alleging the bank violated federal and state laws by failing to carry out its duties as trustee for 121 non-agency MBS trusts. According to the complaint filed in federal district court in Manhattan, Deutsche Bank failed to protect five corporate credit unions – U.S. Central, WesCorp, Members United, Southwest and Constitution – that purchased $140 billion in RMBS issued from the trusts between 2004 and 2007. The securities lost...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to trim their retained holdings of MBS and unsecuritized mortgages in keeping with their conservatorship mandate as the two government-sponsored enterprises each posted a profit during the third quarter of 2014. The two GSEs ended September with a combined $851.71 billion in mortgage-related holdings, down 2.4 percent from the previous quarter. Compared to a year ago, their combined mortgage portfolio was down 16.0 percent and down 46.5 percent from the $1.592 trillion the two firms held in the fourth quarter of 2008 shortly after being placed in government conservatorship. One of the conditions of the conservatorship the GSEs entered six years ago was...[Includes one data chart]