As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to expand their credit-risk transactions, the two government-sponsored enterprises and their regulator should look to other ways to minimize credit risk, industry insiders told attendees of an Urban Institute/CoreLogic housing forum this week. In its most recent strategic plan for the GSEs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is calling on Fannie and Freddie to reduce their exposure to risk by tripling the amount of credit-risk transfers they conduct on their single-family business from $30 billion last year to $90 billion in 2014. Mark Hanson, Freddie’s senior vice president, securitization, told...

Meanwhile, Redwood posted $45.0 million of net income in the third quarter of 2014, almost triple of what it earned in 2Q.

The MBS gain was lopsided: Ginnie MBS issuance jumped 10.8 percent from September to October, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suffered declines.

Initially, the jury awarded $514,000 in compensatory damages from PHH Mortgage and $15.7 million in punitive damages.

New issuance of agency single-family MBS climbed for the eighth consecutive month in October, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a total of $93.01 billion of new single-family MBS during October, up 2.1 percent from September. October production was the highest monthly volume for the market since October 2013, and reflected steady growth since new issuance bottomed out in March of this year. But the gain was...[Includes two data charts]

With the Republicans poised to take control of the U.S. Senate and having gained an even greater GOP majority in the House, legislative conversations surrounding housing finance reform should return to Capitol Hill, but few political commentators believe a bill can actually be passed. Control of the Senate swung back to the GOP for the first time since 2006 after the polls closed, as Republicans now enjoy a 52-45-3 majority in the Senate. However, the race in Louisiana between incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy is headed...

As mortgage lenders continue to feel their way around the world of unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) as defined by the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, there is much they can learn from a close examination of recent enforcement actions. During a webinar this week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, Mercedes Tunstall, a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, said CFPB consent orders show that the bureau is watching telemarketing practices very closely. The CFPB is...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported a combined $6.0 billion in net income for the third quarter of 2014, up from $5.1 billion in the previous quarter. The two government-sponsored enterprises will send to the Treasury $6.8 billion as return on the government’s senior preferred stock. That will bring cumulative payments under the GSE conservatorships to $225.5 billion. Fannie and Freddie were given...

Private mortgage insurers would welcome the return of conventional 97 percent loan-to-value mortgages from the government-sponsored enterprises, but analysts say it might not be a slam dunk. The private MI industry has been encouraging the GSEs, particularly Fannie Mae, to bring back the 97 percent LTV product to compete with the FHA’s main product, which requires just a 3.5 percent downpayment. For years, Fannie offered...

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia early this week ruled that the Fair Housing Act does not provide for a disparate-impact theory of discrimination. The court’s ruling in American Insurance Association v. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the FHAct only permits disparate treatment as a basis for discrimination. HUD issued...