The White House is once again toying with the idea of HARP 3.0 - using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance underwater non-agency loans, giving the GSEs leeway to charge higher guaranty fees for securitizing these mortgages, and waiving mortgage insurance requirements, according to industry officials who’ve been briefed on the plan. However, such an effort – modeled on the GSE’s Home Affordable Refinancing Program – would require Congressional approval and is already meeting with industry resistance. Also, many House Republicans are not happy with the thought. “While we all recognize the need to help as many underwater borrowers as possible, I do not think any further expansion of the GSE charter to originate higher risk, underwater loans makes sense and only shifts risk from the private sector onto the U.S. taxpayer,” said David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Based on past experience, the GSEs are not experts at pricing these kinds of risks.”

As more names are thrown into the “Who Will Succeed DeMarco at FHFA” sweepstakes, the question increasingly being is asked is this: which candidate will placate Congressional Republicans? Republicans, so far, have held united against allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to write down the principal on underwater mortgages as a loan modification tool. Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, of course, has shot down the idea numerous times.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are moving forward together to develop industry-wide data standards, according to updates from both GSEs. A component of the FHFA-mandated Uniform Mortgage Data Program, the Uniform Mortgage Servicing Dataset will define a standard dataset that will facilitate data exchanges between servicers and investors with standardized definitions, formats and valid data values. “The adoption of an industry standard data model will provide long-term benefits to servicers, GSEs and the mortgage industry,” noted the GSEs’ update published Dec. 12.

Heavy refinance volume pushed both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family mortgage securitization up appreciably during the fourth quarter of 2012, helping to close out a post-crisis record year for GSE mortgage-backed security business, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis.Fannie and Freddie issued $352.51 billion in single-family MBS during the fourth quarter, a 5.2 percent increase from the previous period and the biggest quarter in over three years.

Depository institutions managed to trim the volume of mortgage loans they serviced for other investors during the third quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data...[includes one data chart]

Investment banking and advisory firms continue to talk about private equity money eyeing the mortgage servicing market, but so far no one has made a major plunge. Sterling Partners, a Chicago-area equity fund that hired Phoenix Capital’s Michael Lau back in the fall, plans to invest several hundred million in MSR, according to industry advisors familiar with the firm’s plans. Sterling declined to comment on the subject. Lau, an executive vice president at Phoenix ...

Mortgage banking profitability soared to record levels in the third quarter, but some industry analysts say the boom may begin to taper off in 2013.The surge in mortgage banking income during 2012 came from increased secondary marketing gains as the spread between primary market rates and yields on agency mortgage-backed securities widened to historic levels.

Most consumers have a favorable view of debt protection services for their mortgage and credit card debt obligations, despite the occasional news report of abuses in the sector, according to a new study from officials at the Federal Reserve, based on data from the Consumer Credit Industry Association.“Consumer attitudes among purchasers have not changed from the high levels of favorable views of users in the past,” said the study, which was authored by Thomas Durkin and Gregory Elliehausen...

Technology advances have helped most credit unions improve productivity in their mortgage origination processes, but there are significant differences among institutions and the industry as a whole could do a better job in managing the pipeline, according to an analysis by Mortgage Cadence. “While some credit unions post remarkably high productivity and correspondingly low costs to close, there is significant room for improvement,” said Mortgage Cadence, which offers an integrated loan origination system.

Fannie, Freddie ReformThe Mortgage Bankers Association has formed a special working group tasked with divining an approach to implement comprehensive reform of the GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Rolled out in late December, MBA’s 17-member GSE Single Family Task Force will re-examine and add to the association’s 2009 proposal on the future of the secondary mortgage market, according to Task Force Chairman Tim Dale, executive vice president of mortgage lending at BB&T.Dale said the key focus of the task force will be on “transition.”