New issuance of Ginnie Mae single-family mortgage securities declined 17.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. It was the slowest three-month period in Ginnie securitization since the fourth quarter of 2008. Wells Fargo ranked as... [Includes one data chart]

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a legislative remedy in Congress to reform and/or replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The expectation on the Hill and throughout the industry is that meaningful action on GSE reform won’t occur until 2013 at the earliest, industry sources tell Inside The GSEs.

Banks reported a significant decline in the volume of mortgage repurchases and indemnifications they recorded during the first quarter of 2011, but buybacks clearly continue to weigh on mortgage banking profitability. According to a new call report analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, banks reported a total of $3.83 billion in mortgage repurchases and indemnifications during the first quarter. That was down 19.2 percent from the previous three-month period.The buyback problem has clearly improved since the nine months between the... [includes one data chart and one graph]

The Treasury Department this week announced that it is withholding servicer incentive payments for the three largest lenders in the industry following compliance reviews that found them needing significant improvement in their Home Affordable Modification Program activity. The three servicers – Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo – each typically collect about $7 million a month in servicer compensation for non-agency mortgages, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Treasury data. Treasury found a fourth servicer – Ocwen Financial – was also in need of...[contains one data chart]

Freddie Mac made a major reshuffle of its executive suite this week with its announcement of new leadership in each of its three lines of businesses and the creation of a new division at the GSE, as well as a number of other senior leadership changes.With the move, Freddie consolidates the previously separate Single-Family Credit Guarantee, Single-Family Portfolio Management and Operations & Technology divisions into the new Single-Family and Operations & Technology division.

Even though the collapse in the mortgage market took down some bigger lenders structured as real estate investment trusts, the surviving REITs have emerged stronger and some are edging back into originations. Market capitalization for the sector has surged, from about $1.6 billion in 2000 to $36.1 billion (residential) as of May 31, 2011, according to a new report by analysts at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. But there have been some pretty big sinkholes along the way, with Thornburg Mortgage and New Century forced to shutter their operations. Their demise represented a combined loss of...

Shellpoint Partners, a specialty finance company, has completed the acquisition of New Penn Financial to provide residential mortgage products to creditworthy borrowers who are locked out of the market. Acquisition cost and other details of the transaction, which was announced June 2, were not disclosed. The New York-based Shellpoint Partners said acquiring New Penn will provide additional liquidity and options to creditworthy borrowers who do not fit the existing underwriting criteria for government-backed mortgages, including jumbo loan borrowers and...

Servicers must achieve “quality right-party contact” (QRPC) with borrowers as a means of determining a delinquent homeowner’s willingness and ability to pay his mortgage under new standards Fannie Mae has laid out regarding the management of loans in danger of default.Fannie’s issuance of servicing standards this week is in compliance with the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Servicing Alignment Initiative announced in late April to establish consistent mortgage loan servicing and management requirements for servicers acting on behalf of Fannie and Freddie Mac.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the FHA to allow the use of electronic signatures on all FHA loan origination forms to help reduce fraud and other procedural issues in the home buying process. E-signatures are already acceptable under federal law and by the FHA under certain circumstances, the MBA noted in a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The use of e-signatures helps reduce the time required to close a mortgage loan, which may lead to...

In a move that might bring more certainty to the role of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems in the foreclosure process, Fannie Mae is requiring lenders to more clearly identify MERS-registered mortgages. The government-sponsored enterprise already requires lenders to report the MERS Mortgage Identification Number for mortgages originated with MERS as the nominee for the mortgagee or assigned to MERS. Then two weeks ago, Fannie announced several updates to its selling guide having to do with MERS-registered mortgages, one of which is...