The wholesale channel isn’t something to shun, according to officials at Stonegate Mortgage. The nonbank is tapping all three origination channels in an effort to increase its holdings of mortgage servicing rights while controlling origination costs. Stonegate had $2.42 billion in originations in the first quarter of 2014, up 27.4 percent from a year ago, making the publicly traded mortgage banker one of the relatively few lenders to increase its production in that span ...

The environment is ripe for bank mortgage lenders to see improvements in the coming months, according to industry analysts. However, even as interest rates remain at low levels, there has yet to be a significant increase in originations of purchase mortgages. “The mortgage market has slowed, but things aren’t all bad for banks,” Standard & Poor’s said last week in an analysis of banks’ mortgage revenue. The rating service noted that mortgage banking results ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $44.8 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the month of May, a slight 1.3 percent dip from April, but it reversed the brief rebound following a year-long streak of declines, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis. However, May’s MBS issuance was down a much steeper 62.4 percent from the same period a year ago. Top-ranked Wells Fargo’s Fannie and Freddie securitization, at $5.97 billion, dropped by 4.9 percent on a monthly basis and by 73.6 percent year-to-date.

Commercial banks and savings institutions reported another decline in mortgage repurchase and indemnification activity in the first quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call reports. The industry reported just $1.14 billion in aggregate repurchases and indemnifications related to single-family mortgage banking operations during the first three months of the year. That was down 21.4 percent from the previous period and ... [Includes one data chart]

After months of anticipation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency last week issued an official call for public comment, particularly from the mortgage industry, on how Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s conservator should calculate both guaranty fees and loan-level price adjustments. The FHFA’s “request for input” specifically seeks guidance regarding the optimum level of g-fees and their implications for mortgage credit availability, but the agency does not provide any specific proposals as some had expected. One of the first things that FHFA Director Mel Watt did when he assumed office in January was delay implementation of a planned GSE g-fee increase set into motion by his predecessor, Acting Director Edward DeMarco.

Cantor Loss Unlikely to Advance Hensarling, PATH Act Opportunity? House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s defeat this week by his GOP primary Tea Party challenger Dave Brat is already shaking up the House leadership with implications for key lawmakers affecting the GSE reform debate.Cantor, R-VA, will close out his term at the end of this year but has announced he will give up his post as House majority leader effective July 31. Republican leadership could hold elections to replace Cantor as early as next week. Cantor has endorsed Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, to succeed him as majority leader.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-NY, last week reintroduced legislation that would “sharply curtail” the ability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to invest in future transactions that reduce the availability of affordable housing both in New York and nationwide. Maloney’s legislation, the Responsible GSE Affordable Housing Investment Act of 2014, initially introduced in 2010, would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency to deny affordable housing goals credits when a project’s debt is disproportionate to its income.

A new analysis by the Urban Institute released last week found that GSE denial rates for weaker credit profile applicants, including many minority applicants, were much higher than denial rates for all applicants. The UI’s analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data found at least 16 percent of applicants were denied Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans for purchase of an owner-occupied property in 2012. However, when compared to CoreLogic’s data, the UI also found the denial rate for low credit GSE applicants was at least 54 percent.

A noted GSE hawk successfully pushed through a legislative amendment that would block Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from paying into the National Housing Trust Fund “at a time when they still owe money to the American people.” The amendment by Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, to H.R. 4745, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2015, would prohibit the GSEs from using funds for the NHTF, which was established under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Attorneys for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac junior shareholders have doubled down in their assertions that the government had no authority to initiate a “net-worth sweep” of nearly all GSE profits. They say a federal court should not only decline Uncle Sam’s recent motion to dismiss but also “vacate the illegal sweep amendment.” In a joint rebuttal motion filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, attorneys for Perry Capital and Fairholme Funds note that in attempt to evade judicial scrutiny, the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency raise “a host of frivolous and irrelevant challenges” to the plaintiffs’ legal standing while ignoring investors” core assertion that the 2012 sweep was illegal.