State regulators are trying to take the National Mortgage Licensing System mortgage call report to the next level in terms of analytical capability. If the vendor side of the industry has its way, this will be accomplished in a manner that relies on the latest in technology to make the compliance process easier for lenders and report users. As the annual NMLS conference in Miami was winding down late this week, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors was, as of press time, set to convene a panel of ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's oversight of a nearly three-year-old initiative designed to improve the performance of residential servicers working for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has "significant limitations" and is in dire need of supervision, according to a new report from the agency’s Inspector General. The FHFA’s Servicing Alignment Initiative, introduced in April 2011, requires Fannie and Freddie to align their servicing requirements in four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency management practices, loan modifications and foreclosure timelines.

Nearly half of all mortgage borrowers did not refinance their home loan during the period between 2009 and 2012, when mortgage interest rates declined steadily, according to a Fannie Mae survey. The government-sponsored enterprise found that 40 percent to 50 percent of borrowers, for some reason, did not take advantage of low interest rates to reduce their monthly mortgage payments through refinancing. To try to get at why borrowers don’t refinance when the opportunity seems ripe, Fannie economist ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both rolled out limited-time offer incentive programs for real estate agents and homebuyers in a bid to move some of the GSEs’ real estate-owned properties.Freddie announced this week it will pay a $1,000 inducement to selling agents and a separate $500 bonus to listing agents when they sell a home through the company’s HomeSteps program.

Fed: G-Fee Hikes Would Have Minimal Impact on Agency Originations. Increases to guaranty fees under consideration by the Federal Housing Finance Agency would directly reduce the dollar volume of new agency originations by less than 1.0 percent, according to new research published by the Federal Reserve. In December, then-FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco announced a plan to increase the base g-fee for all new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages by 10 basis points, update the up-front g-fee grid and eliminate the upfront 25 basis point adverse market fee that has been assessed on all mortgages purchased by Fannie and Freddie since 2008.

Last year’s steady decline in GSE refinance activity continued into 2014 and contributed to an overall dip in the volume of single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie issued $47.0 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities in January, a 15.8 percent decline from December 2013 and a steeper 61.9 percent decrease from the same period a year ago.

Radian and United Guaranty were co-champs of the MI league last year. Radian reported the largest new insurance written figure, $55.04 billion.

The SEC was poised to issue a final rule with loan-level disclosure requirements for non-agency MBS earlier this month. The SFIG said it expects the SEC will issue a final rule on the so-called Regulation AB2 “in the near future.”

Large mortgage vendors are expected to buy smaller firms this year "and fit them to their mold," said one industry observer.

Genpact is the latest mortgage vendor to trim staff. At least 81 were let go in its Irvine location.