Reversing at least temporarily a long-running trend in the mortgage market, the four biggest banks in the U.S. expanded their presence in the GSE single-family market in the third quarter of 2016. Together, Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup delivered $61.88 billion of single-family loans into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis and ranking. That was up a hefty 45.0 percent from the second quarter, well above the 29.7 percent increase in overall MBS issuance by the two GSEs. The four megabanks, all with over $1 trillion in assets, expanded their combined GSE footprint by 2.2 percent from the second quarter.

The ruling handed down this week that concluded the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional has led to industry chatter that the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is similarly structured, could be more closely examined. In PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a DC Circuit Court judge found that the bureau’s single-director structure was unconstitutional and dismissed a $109 million penalty against PHH for violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Robert Maddox, financial services litigation attorney with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, told Inside The GSEs, “While the court did not address the constitutionality of FHFA, the framework of FHFA may possibly lend itself to the same constitutional scrutiny as the CFPB.”

The comment period on credit risk transfers ended Oct. 13 and letters from industry groups have been pouring in this week, with many primarily focusing on the issue of front-end versus back-end credit-risk transfers. While some advocate for more front-end risk- sharing deals, instead of the back-end ones that account for more than 80 percent of CRTs to date, others warned that “winners and losers” should not be picked. Back in June, the FHFA asked for industry feedback on various aspects of its CRT program. It also extended the deadline from August to October because industry stakeholders wanted more time to evaluate the questions raised in the request for input.

Reversing at least temporarily a long-running trend in the mortgage market, the four biggest banks in the U.S. expanded their presence in the GSE single-family market in the third quarter of 2016...

The traditional interpretation of Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act that the mortgage industry has relied on for decades was vindicated this week when ...

ICYMI: The brouhaha over the Wells Fargo phony account creation debacle took another turn this week, with CEO John Stump opting for early retirement...

Further empirical confirmation of a recovering mortgage market continued to accumulate at the CFPB during the third quarter, as related consumer complaints dropped 19.8 percent ...

A total of $12.41 billion of non-agency MBS were issued during the third quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis, but the market continued to rely heavily on a mix of recycled collateral and niche transactions. Overall issuance was up 78.3 percent from the second quarter, including big gains in prime MBS production and re-securitization deals. That still left year-to-date issuance off 43.9 percent from the first nine months of 2015. The huge jump in prime MBS production is...[Includes three data tables]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sold $3.78 billion of credit-risk transfer bonds during the third quarter, a 7.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of CRT disclosures made by the two government-sponsored enterprises. That brought year-to-date issue in Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities program and Freddie’s Structured Agency Credit Risk program to $10.73 billion, up 13.3 percent from the first nine months of last year. Fannie had...[Includes one data table]

Executive departures continue to plague due diligence provider Clayton Holdings and now there’s talk that its parent company, Radian Group, is contemplating taking a goodwill charge on a subsidiary it paid $305 million for two years ago. The latest top-level officials to leave the unit include Capital Markets Senior Managing Director Brian Wornow and Mark Hughes, executive vice president in charge of sales and marketing. Sources close to Wornow contend...