As the Federal Housing Finance Agency ponders possible improvements to the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program, calls from different corners of the industry are growing louder for the FHFA to end fees charged to borrowers who refinance Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago’s long awaited capital stock conversion plan has received the thumbs up from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, moving the Bank a giant step toward regaining equal footing with its fellow FHLBanks.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $177.19 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter of 2011, a modest 14.3 percent improvement following two straight quarterly declines during the first six months of this year.The recent July-September cycle represented one of the weakest quarters historically for GSE MBS production since the financial markets crashed at the end of 2008.

Small and mid-sized lenders participating in the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities program may gain more financing flexibility – and a more competitive footing against the giants in the market – as the agency makes it easier to pledge mortgage servicing rights. Ginnie this week announced a revised Acknowledgement Agreement that will make it simpler for the agency to honor servicing pledges and permit the transfer of MSRs. Until now, Ginnie servicers that need cash to honor their servicing advance responsibilities have not been able to put their MSRs up as collateral for financing, explained Ted Tozer, president of Ginnie Mae, in...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s announcement last month that it is considering increased risk sharing with mortgage insurers, which could mitigate the negative effect of conforming mortgage guarantee fee increases over the coming years, while the Federal Reserve’s recently unveiled “Operation Twist” is likely to provide a “modest near-term boost to mortgage markets,” according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service.

After negotiating with a potential buyer, Bank of America gave up trying to sell its correspondent business and will simply shut the program down by the end of the year, leaving a huge potential hole in the market. The rumored bidder, NationStar Mortgage, reportedly wanted a higher price than BofA was willing to pay to take the correspondent unit off the bank’s hands. “After a comprehensive review of market opportunities, Bank of America will close its correspondent lending channel by the end of 2011, following an orderly transition with clients,” the company said in a written statement. BofA, which had already...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency knew or should have known about improper foreclosure practices involving Fannie Mae affiliated law firms long before the Finance Agency began a review, according to the regulator’s official watchdog.The FHFA Office of Inspector General’s latest audit found that the FHFA did not investigate complaints about Fannie’s Retained Attorney Network until August 2010 in the wake of negative news reports alleging that RAN attorneys had engaged in inappropriate foreclosure practices, such as routinely filing false documents in court proceedings and “robo-signing.”

Servicers face increased costs to meet new loss mitigation requirements. However, servicers at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference this week in Chicago said they have accepted the costs as a trade-off for decreased liability. “We focus on profitability, but you still have to do quality,” said Kent Lemon, a senior vice president at Saxon Mortgage Services. He said the servicer constantly works on quality assurance. Saxon uses targeted performance monitoring of employees for the Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act, fair servicing standards and other loan modification guidelines. Lemon said the servicer also...

The ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to “give serious consideration” to shuttering Fannie Mae’s Retained Attorney Network, but not before answering questions and providing documents about the FHFA’s oversight of the program.

Closer scrutiny of portfolio loan quality and growing repurchase demands have pushed mortgage software providers MasterServ Financial and The Prieston Group to develop products to help lenders manage their portfolio risks and reduce buyback risks. MasterServ Financial, a technology solution provider to the mortgage banking industry, is expanding its portfolio monitoring product from distressed real estate loans and REO management to new portfolios of performing mortgage loans. With the shift in real estate values, a weak economy and high unemployment rate, it is very difficult to determine whether the loans in a lender’s portfolio today are...