The Federal Housing Finance Agency last week issued regulations that clamp down on “golden parachute” severance payments to departing GSE executives. Published in the Jan. 28 Federal Register, the FHFA’s final rule applies to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks and the Office of Finance, as well as any “entity-affiliated parties,” including independent contractors such as attorneys, accountants and appraisers.

Government lawyers have run the numbers again and have now concluded that Bank of America should pay a lot more than the initially-sought $864 million penalty over mortgage fraud related to Countrywide Financial’s “Hustle” program. The Justice Department filed papers with Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff Wednesday requesting the Charlotte-based BofA be fined $2.1 billion for Countrywide’s fraudulent sale of toxic mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

A Manhattan federal bankruptcy court last week approved Lehman Brother’s proposed $2 billion-plus settlement that would end an $18.9 billion claim filed against the defunct investment bank by Fannie Mae over soured mortgage securities. Judge James Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York signed off on the settlement agreement between Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the government-sponsored enterprise, as well as Lehman’s wholly owned subsidiaries Aurora Commercial Group and Aurora Loan Services. ALS was a large Alt A lender/servicer.

Freddie Prices First Risk-Sharing Transaction of 2014. Freddie Mac this week announced a $1 billion offering of its Structured Agency Credit Risk debt notes. The deal is backed by 140,000 residential loans, representing an unpaid principal balance of approximately $32.4 billion. This STACR pool consists of 30-year fixed-rate single-family mortgages acquired by Freddie in the second quarter of 2013.More than 65 investors participated in the offering, Freddie said.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $47.0 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during January, starting 2014 off with a 15.8 percent decline from December 2013, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. January’s drop was even steeper, at 61.9 percent, from the same period a year ago.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dominated the residential mortgage market in 2013, albeit to a lesser degree, than the GSEs had during the previous 12-month period, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie issued a combined $1.571 trillion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in 2013, which equaled 73.8 percent of total market production. That was down from 75.7 percent in 2012.

More homebuyers opted for adjustable-rate mortgages as interest rates increased during 2013, although most of these loans remain in portfolio. ARMs accounted for 11.7 percent of mortgage originations in the third quarter of 2013, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, up from a share of 9.8 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Quarterly originations of ARMs have stayed relatively steady in recent years and hit $54 billion in the third quarter of 2013. But ARMs remain relatively rare in [Includes two data charts]

Even though regulatory scrutiny is sure to intensify in the new mortgage lending ecosystem crafted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, tightening margins and a declining originations market are expected to tempt more lenders to turn to outsourcing as a coping method. Would-be providers are stepping up to the opportunity. The latest to do so is Freedom Mortgage Corp., a privately-held mortgage lender based in Mt. Laurel, NJ. The company this week launched its ...

In mortgage banking, logic dictates that when loan production drops dramatically – as it has the past four months – originators cut back on compensation. But that isn’t stopping some lenders from offering huge signing bonuses to top performers. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Trends, a few nonbank lenders are paying hefty bonuses to lure certain loan officers away from their current employers. One nonbank lender based in California reportedly paid a $1 million signing bonus recently ...

Significant investments in mortgage servicing rights appear to have paid off for Two Harbors Investment, a real estate investment trust. PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is also turning profits due to MSRs, servicing and a correspondent operation. Two Harbors this week reported net income of $239.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, rebounding from a net loss of $192.7 million in the previous quarter, both based on generally accepted accounting principles. During the fourth quarter, Two Harbors ...