Sen. Shelby is an Alabama Republican with a populist streak who is no friend of the GSEs, but he may side with shareholders of the two companies who are getting shafted by Treasury “sweeps.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in May resumed a more than year-long streak of declines with monthly decreases in the volume of single-family mortgages securitized by the two GSEs, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie issued $44.8 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities in May, a 1.3 percent decrease from the previous month. April’s $45.4 billion issuance proved to be just a brief reversal to the longer trend.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities remained the preferred investment choice of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks during the first quarter of 2014, with a very slight decline from the previous quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside The GSEs based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Meanwhile, Ginnie Mae securities posted an increase within the FHLBank system during the first three months of the year.
DC Circuit Latest Court to Reject GSE Tax Collection Effort by Municipalities. A three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court recently upheld a lower court ruling against Kay County in Oklahoma, which has been trying to collect real estate transfer taxes from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In rejecting Kay County’s bid to get the GSEs to pay a 1 percent “documentary stamp tax,” the DC court’s finding became the latest in a growing number of…
Any action that the Federal Housing Finance Agency takes in setting GSE guaranty fees should take into account the agency’s conservatorship duty to direct economic stakeholders, including shareholders, noted a coalition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investors. In a letter to FHFA Director Mel Watt Wednesday, Investors Unite Executive Director Tim Pagliara urged the agency head to take into account “the critical purpose of setting appropriate guaranty fees,” noting that the Finance Agency does not have a mandate as conservator to run Fannie and Freddie as not-for-profit entities.
A recently issued advisory by Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s conservator noting that the two GSEs should only approve mortgage servicing sales where the transactions “are consistent” sound business practices comes as part of a renewed federal and state focus on servicing, officials note. Although Fannie and Freddie have, for years, had minimum capital requirements for mortgage companies that want to become seller/servicers, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and state regulators are now exploring codifying a capital minimum for nonbanks, according to industry officials and state regulators.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to continue issuing more risk-transfer deals even though both GSEs have effectively reached their 2014 targets. But some of the potential upside for investors has dissipated, according to separate analyses by Fitch Ratings and Wells Fargo Securities. Tight pricing on mortgage risk transfer securities issued by Fannie and Freddie indicates a “growing appetite for this relatively new and unique form of mortgage risk,” noted Fitch.
RSS