MGIC Investment announced late last week that it won certain concessions from Freddie Mac and the two are working to resolve a dispute regarding mortgage insurance pool pricing by the end of this month. Freddie cut a required capital contribution by MGIC Investment in half and allowed a significant expansion of the number of areas in which an MGIC subsidiary can write new business. “I am pleased with the spirit of cooperation all parties have shown in moving forward to reach this point,” said Curt Culver, chairman and CEO of MGIC Investment and Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. “While there can be no guaranty that the open matters that remain can be successfully resolved, I am hopeful we will continue to make progress.” In May, MGIC filed...

There is a clear need to reform the government-sponsored enterprise structure but how aggressively Congress will move on it and whether the next administration can provide much-needed leadership is unclear, according to housing and mortgage industry experts. Panelists in a forum hosted this week by the Progressive Policy Institute and the American Action Forum said they doubt Congress will be able to deal with the complex issue of GSE reform in 2013. Some among the panel of top economists and housing market experts said it may take a while before Congress can act on any reform legislation, much less in a bipartisan manner. Congress will not be...

Gibbs & Bruns, the law firm representing non-agency MBS investors that reached a precedent-setting settlement with Bank of America, is now targeting Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley. The law firm’s clients issued Wells and Morgan Stanley a notice of non-performance last week identifying covenants in pooling and servicing agreements that the servicers have allegedly failed to perform. “The holders’ notice alleges that each of these failures has materially affected the rights of the certificate holders and constitutes an ongoing event of default in the servicer’s performance under the relevant PSAs,” the law firm said. Bank of America received...

Researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have found additional evidence to support New York Fed President William Dudley’s call for an increase in streamlined refinances for current borrowers with agency mortgages. They suggest that further changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program to prompt refis and prepayments are not a “zero sum game” between borrowers and agency MBS investors. In January, Dudley said obstacles have prevented...

First-lien mortgages held in bank and thrift portfolios increased by 4.1 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of bank call report data. The strong increase comes as banks actively sell poorly performing legacy mortgages and suggests that lenders have increased their non-agency portfolio originations. Of the 21 banks and thrifts with at least $10.0 billion in first-lien holdings as of the ... [Includes one data chart]

Special servicers are set to receive more than $300.0 billion in distressed agency mortgages, according to industry analysts. The projections come after positive reviews of Fannie Mae’s controversial purchase and transfer of $73.0 billion in mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America in 2011. The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the FHFA Office of Inspector General each determined that Fannie paid a premium for BofA’s mortgage servicing rights, but significant savings will be recognized due ...

Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley last week received notices from non-agency mortgage-backed security investors represented by the law firm of Gibbs & Bruns, which helped negotiate the pending $8.5 billion non-agency MBS settlement with Bank of America. Industry analysts suggest that the notices of non-performance could prompt settlements from Wells and Morgan Stanley, though the circumstances differ from the BofA case. The notices identify covenants in pooling and servicing agreements that the servicers ...

Lenders warn that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed changes to stringent rules for “high-cost” mortgages will dramatically restrict credit availability for borrowers. Consumer advocates counter that the CFPB’s proposal to expand coverage of the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act is appropriate and they are concerned with potential evasion of the pending rule. “The high-cost proposal would inevitably result in the further tightening of credit, even for creditworthy applicants,” ...

The market share for higher priced mortgages doubled in 2011 compared with the previous year, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released last week. However, the market share for the proxy for subprime mortgages used by federal regulators remained tiny at 1.2 percent of the dollar volume of originations reported in 2011. Some $12.38 billion in higher priced mortgages were sold in 2011, up ... [Includes one data chart]

Thomas Hoenig, a director at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., last week called for changes to impending Basel III capital standards. Industry analysts have warned that the rules will discourage origination of nontraditional mortgages. “In private discussions I find a good deal of uneasiness about Basel III’s ability to be more effective than previous Basel efforts; however, there is a sense that we cannot go back,” Hoenig said in a speech. “I suggest that we not only can go back, we must.” ...