Nearly half of all mortgage borrowers did not refinance their home loan during the period between 2009 and 2012, when mortgage interest rates declined steadily, according to a Fannie Mae survey. The government-sponsored enterprise found that 40 percent to 50 percent of borrowers, for some reason, did not take advantage of low interest rates to reduce their monthly mortgage payments through refinancing. To try to get at why borrowers don’t refinance when the opportunity seems ripe, Fannie economist ...

State regulators are trying to take the National Mortgage Licensing System mortgage call report to the next level in terms of analytical capability. If the vendor side of the industry has its way, this will be accomplished in a manner that relies on the latest in technology to make the compliance process easier for lenders and report users. As the annual NMLS conference in Miami was winding down late this week, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors was, as of press time, set to convene a panel of ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's oversight of a nearly three-year-old initiative designed to improve the performance of residential servicers working for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has "significant limitations" and is in dire need of supervision, according to a new report from the agency’s Inspector General. The FHFA’s Servicing Alignment Initiative, introduced in April 2011, requires Fannie and Freddie to align their servicing requirements in four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency management practices, loan modifications and foreclosure timelines.

Proprietary loan modifications, the dominant form of loss mitigation, have declined significantly in the past year, while activity in the Home Affordable Modification Program has remained relatively level, according to the Hope Now alliance. Some 137,879 loan mods were completed in the fourth quarter of 2013, down 24.0 percent from the previous quarter and a 44.0 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2012. Eric Selk, executive director of Hope Now, said the decline in mods “closely tracks” with ...

Countrywide Financial, now owned by Bank of America, is asking a federal judge to sanction the Federal Housing Finance Agency and to appoint a special master to investigate what CFC says is the FHFA’s “noncompliance” in producing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac documents in the company’s defense against the GSEs’ $26.6 billion MBS lawsuit. According to a motion filed earlier this month in the U.S. District Court, Central District Court of California, CFC says the FHFA is defying the court’s October order to produce – either in a timely manner or not at all – documents from Fannie’s and Freddie’s single-family businesses.

Mortgage servicing helped lenders increase their mortgage-banking income during the fourth quarter of 2013, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports from 10 major lenders, including the top three in the industry. The 10 companies reported a combined $2.193 billion in servicing-related income during the fourth quarter, up 19.8 percent from the previous period. That was considerably more than the $1.324 billion the lenders reported on production-related income ...

Despite continued calls by supporters, the Obama administration remains uninterested in expanding the Home Affordable Refinance Program administratively while existing HARP 3.0 legislation remains hopelessly stalled. Last week during a public appearance, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan made it clear that HUD will not push for an expansion of HARP.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Inspector General wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to penalize lenders for delays in repurchasing loans via an aggressive application of buyback late fees. The FHFA issued a “contract harmonization directive” in January 2012 calling for the two GSEs to develop “consistent timelines and collection standards for fees and penalties and additional types of penalties and remedies.”

Some five and a half years after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the remains of Lehman Brothers settled the legal claim by Freddie Mac stemming from $1.2 billion in loans made by the GSE to the investment bank just before the financial collapse. Judge Shelley Chapman of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved this week the settlement that would see Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. pays $767 million to the GSE to close out Freddie’s bid to collect on the unpaid loan.

The call for housing-finance reform and a legislative solution to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continues to grow among policymakers, but as the clock runs down some industry observers say it is already too late for effective action this year. Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, reportedly remain close to unveiling a housing finance reform bill.