The Trump administration has subtly signaled its support for PHH Corp. in the mortgage lender’s long-running dispute with the CFPB over alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. In recent days, the Department of Justice asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for permission to file an amicus brief in the case by March 17, one week after the deadline the court had given PHH to file its response to the court’s decision to grant the CFPB’s request for an en banc rehearing.The court has since granted the administration’s request for the one-week extension. In its request, the Justice Department said, “As this court recognized in calling for the views of the ...

About one-third of the lenders surveyed by Fannie currently use technology service providers and another third are investigating next-generation technology service providers.

Anne Canfield cautioned that if the FCC adopts the changes requested in the petition, lenders would largely be prohibited from calling distressed borrowers.

Virtually all the shrinkage in 2016 took place among the four megabanks with over $1 trillion in assets: Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank.

New issuance of single-family mortgage-backed securities by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell 30.6 percent from January to February as the refinance business continued to weaken.The two GSEs issued a combined $63.67 billion of single-family MBS last month, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis and ranking. Absent a heavy refi flow, February is typically the low point in the annual cycle. A year ago, combined Fannie/Freddie production totaled just $50.05 billion in February. Production in the first two months of 2017 was up 45.7 percent from the same period last year, with big gains in both purchase (up 42.7 percent) and refi business (up 57.7 percent). But while purchase-mortgage lending is...

Freddie Hosts Employee Panel on Affordable Housing. In commemoration of Black History Month, Freddie Mac’s ARISE employee resource group invited all employees to a panel discussion on the company's commitment to affordable housing, particularly in the African-American community. The GSE said that the panelists began by discussing the importance of homeownership in all communities, while recognizing that there is a gap between white and non-white homeownership rates. Panelists discussed ways that Freddie is helping close this divide via programs including Home Possible mortgages that offer low downpayment options for low- to moderate– income homebuyers, reducing one of the financial barriers that impede African-American families from homeownership. And they talked about the GSE’s commitment to financing affordable rental properties. Investors Unite Podcast Launch.

Fannie Mae’s second front-end credit risk sharing transaction is much larger than its first deal as it shifts a portion of the risk on about $15 billion worth of single-family loans. The inaugural front-end CRT announced in October, involved about $3.7 billion of single-family loans. These two transactions use credit insurance risk transfer on the front end of the transaction. Most of the GSEs’ CIRT transactions have involved insurance contracts on pools of loans that have already been securitized. This deal, like the first, will be completed on a flow basis with the risk transfer taking place before Fannie acquires the covered loans. And the insurance coverage will begin immediately after acquisition.

The number of Freddie Mac mortgages that have fallen seriously delinquent or are in foreclosure dropped below 1 percent in January, the first time in close to a decade. Last week Freddie reported that the rate is significantly below the 3.13 percent rate for the entire mortgage market. The last time it was under 1 percent was in 2008, when it was .93 percent. It peaked at 4.20 percent two years later in 2010. It has gradually come down in subsequent years with the rate falling to 3.25 percent in 2012 and 1.88 percent in 2014. The seriously delinquent rate is for mortgage loans that are three or more monthly payments past due or are in foreclosure.

Preventing GSE guarantee fees from being used as income for unrelated government spending has been an ongoing battle. In the latest attempt to block this from happening, more than a dozen mortgage and housing groups sent a joint letter in support of the Risk Management and Homeowner Stability Act. H.R. 916, introduced by Reps. Mark Sanford, R-SC, and Brad Sherman, D-CA, was created to stop g-fees from being tapped for non-housing programs. The Mortgage Bankers Association, Community Mortgage Lenders of America, the American Bankers Association and U.S. Mortgage Insurers are among the 14 groups that signed the letter. They argue that increasing g-fees for other purposes imposes an...

Freddie Mac implemented a few underwriting changes that went into effect this week regarding a borrower’s self-employment status, retirement accounts and commission income. The GSE announced that the documentation required for self-employed borrowers will be revised based on the number of years the borrower has been self-employed and the business has been in existence. Borrowers self-employed for less than five years will face greater scrutiny under the new requirement. Borrowers who are self-employed and have had a business operation for at least five years will require one year of personal and business returns. But those who have been self-employed with business in operation for less...