The government-sponsored enterprises are working several different risk-transfer pilots and will soon issue the securities, according to officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Non-agency MBS investors appear eager for the securities, though a number of regulatory concerns remain, including complications with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Patrick Lawler, chief economist at the FHFA, said a risk-sharing transaction will hopefully be issued in the “not too distant future.” Speaking at the American Securitization Forum’s ASF 2013 conference this week in Las Vegas, Lawler and other officials with the FHFA and GSEs said risk-sharing transactions are a high priority this year. “The commitment is...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it has settled one of its numerous lawsuits against non-agency mortgage-backed securities issuers for misrepresenting deals that were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the mortgage market collapse.

Despite the bad press and the elimination of the standard fixed-rate reverse mortgage product from the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, reverse mortgages will continue to thrive simply because people grow old, former Ginnie Mae chief Joe Murin told Inside FHA Lending.

Lenders One, the nation’s largest mortgage cooperative, is telling its members they need to get their Fannie Mae servicing approvals by the end of January to be eligible for discounts under an affinity deal it has with the GSE.

Envoy Mortgage, a privately held nonbank, is the latest lender to jump into the correspondent lending arena. On Wednesday the firm issued a statement saying it has hired two industry veterans – Dan Hastings and Todd Cheney – to build and run the new division. Formed in 1997, Envoy has been a retail-only lender funding in 48 states… Plus other mortgage news briefs.

Bank of America, which is in the process of selling roughly $308 billion worth of mortgage servicing rights, recently trimmed its servicing staff by at least 700 workers...

Redwood Trust is set to issue its second non-agency jumbo MBS of the year, a $666.13 million security, according to a presale report released today by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The MBS will largely consist of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, with 51.4 percent of the originations from First Republic Bank. Plus other mortgage news briefs.

Fannie Mae is ending the practice of assigning different guaranty-fee discounts to the various “affinity groups” or cooperatives that pool mortgages for sale into the secondary market, Inside Mortgage Finance has learned.

Although the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finalized its servicing regulations, it likely will take a close look at the transfer of mortgage servicing rights – a business that has been booming of late, with most of the activity tied to “legacy” product.

Nationstar Mortgage and KB Home are taking their strategic partnership to another level, setting up a new mortgage company that will provide mortgage banking services to new KB homebuyers across the U.S., the two firms announced.