The agencies securitized just $35.46 billion of refinance loans during November, down 15 percent from the previous month, and refinances accounted for 44 percent of total issuance.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency late this week released proposed criteria for rating non-QMs, making it the second rating service to formally seek comments on such criteria.

Brokers and the trade groups that represent them believe new regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put them at a competitive advantage to lenders that actually fund mortgages.

“Our estimate of legal and rep and warrant reserves for the largest banks is a total of roughly $60 billion,” S&P writes in a new report. “We estimate that the largest banks may need to pay out an additional $55 billion to $105 billion to settle mortgage-related issues, some of which is already accounted for in these reserves.”

Ed DeMarco might possibly name a chairman for the CSP platform and let Mel Watt have the final say on the CEO slot. Two mortgage executives interviewed for the CEO job include Peter Carroll and Luke Hayden.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is still weighing final risk-to-capital rules for mortgage insurance firms that conduct business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with a target release date of mid-December, MI executives told Inside The GSEs. MI sources with knowledge of the situation said the FHFA will likely issue a risk-to-capital minimum of 18:1 compared to the current standard of 25:1. Also, there is talk of a phase-in period and “bi-furcation” for legacy versus new companies.

The once deadlocked but now all-but-certain confirmation of Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, to be the new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has left industry observers uncertain as to the continued policy direction of the FHFA. Based on client conversations, Compass Point Research & Trading Analyst Isaac Boltansky speculated in an analysis that the FHFA’s announcement last week to retain its baseline maximum conforming loan limit was influenced by Watt’s widely expected, pending confirmation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency may be close to picking a chairman to head the common securitization platform project, which still does not have a chief executive officer, according to one source briefed on the matter. This official, who requested his name not be used, said there are two prospects for the chairman slot, “but FHFA still hasn’t decided on one.” The CSP, formally known as Common Securitization Solutions LLC, is a joint venture equally owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. CSS recently signed a lease on office space in Bethesda, MD, just outside the District of Columbia.

Legislation that would allow privately-insured credit unions access to the Federal Home Loan Bank system has been introduced in the House.Introduced last week by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-OH, and Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-OH, H.R. 3584, the Capital Access for Small Community Financial Institutions Act of 2013, would amend the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to allow privately insured credit unions to be eligible for FHLBank membership.

Freddie Mac this week racked up another settlement in the GSE’s recent ongoing series of mortgage buyback deals when Bank of America announced it will pay $404 million to settle repurchase obligations tied to loans sold between 2000 and 2009. The payment also compensates Freddie for “certain past losses and potential future losses relating to denials, rescissions and cancellations of mortgage insurance,” the GSE said. The amount is less $13 million of repurchases already made.