The House Ethics Committee has closed the case against the second highest ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee after finding “no evidence” of ethics violations. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, had been the subject of a two-year investigation amid allegations that she had violated House rules by improperly influencing the bailout of a bank where her husband owned stock.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week announced a second winning bidder of its pilot program to move GSE real estate-owned properties from money-losing foreclosures to money-making rentals and eventually off the books entirely. The FHFA announced that New York-based Cogsville Group LLC was the winning bidder of 94 Fannie Mae-owned properties as part of the FHFA’s REO pilot initiative. The firm paid $2.1 million for a share in a joint venture with Fannie, resulting in an estimated transaction value to the GSE of $11.8 million or 86.2 percent of the properties’ estimated value, according to the transaction summary.

Heavy refinance volume pushed both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family mortgage securitization up sharply during the third quarter of 2012, well ahead of the pace the two GSEs set in 2011, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie issued $335.38 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter, a 22.4 percent increase from the second quarter, a rebound from the GSEs’ slump during the April-through-June period.

Freddie Mac last week cut some slack in the form of a lifeline to MGIC Investment Corp. which will allow the mortgage insurer to write additional policies even as the MI and the GSE work through a simmering dispute over pool insurance. On Sept. 28, MGIC announced that Freddie has reduced the amount of capital contribution MGIC Investment must pay its principal subsidiary MGIC to $100 million from $200 million. The GSE also extended the deadline for this contribution from Sept. 30 to Dec. 1.

Neither Freddie Mac nor its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, purposefully limited refinancing opportunities in order to protect the value of the GSE’s investment portfolio, concluded a report by the FHFA’s official watchdog last week. The FHFA’s Office of Inspector General said it found “no evidence” that the GSE or the Finance Agency obstructed homeowners’ abilities to refi in an effort to influence the yields of inverse floating-rate bonds.

Declining interest rates forced mortgage bankers to lower the fair market value of their mortgage servicing rights during the second quarter, according to a new analysis of bank call-report data by Inside Mortgage Trends. Banks reported a total of $5.607 trillion of mortgage servicing for others as of the end of June, a 3.1 percent decline from the previous quarter. That represented about 81.8 percent of the total mortgage servicing outstanding that was tied to agency and non-agency ... [Includes one data chart]

In an effort related to the national mortgage servicing settlement, Bank of America announced last week that it has pre-qualified 150,000 borrowers to receive full extinguishments of their second-lien mortgages. Banks have been slow to modify second liens because their performance remains relatively strong even as borrowers struggle with first liens and negative equity. BofA said the full balance of second liens owned and serviced by the bank will be forgiven and the bank’s lien on the corresponding property ...

Servicers have seen increasing success with loan modification efforts in recent quarters, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of data released last week by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. While mod characteristics and performance vary widely, re-default rates largely appear to be tied to reductions in borrowers’ monthly payments. Re-default rates on mods completed in the past year are well below comparable rates for mods completed in 2008 and 2009. Some 44.7 percent of loans modified ...

The unrelenting pressure to comply with industry regulations and standards is the greatest factor impacting eMortgage and paperless mortgage initiatives, according to a survey by Xerox Mortgage Services. Xerox’s eighth annual Path to Paperless survey found that an ample 86 percent of industry respondents looked to a technological solution to avoid being caught on the wrong side of regulatory enforcement. Mortgage laws, regulations and standards continue to evolve in a direction toward ...

The question whether the mortgage interest deduction is worth keeping elicited mixed reactions from economists and housing market experts during a recent discussion about how to bring private capital back into the mortgage market. Participants in a panel discussion hosted by the Progressive Policy Institute and the American Action Forum took up the issue after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the day before, suggested cutting the mortgage interest deduction as part of an overall plan to equalize tax ...