Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, said passing legislation this year “evidently is not going to happen” and his sense is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will stay in conservatorship “for some time.”

Many industry observers are bracing for significant change in the roles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as Congress has failed again to tackle the problem. But some analysts believe the Trump administration will steer away from policy changes that would rile major business constituencies and slow down a major component of the economy.

The FHFA said reviews have helped align GSE prepayment speeds in the past few years while helping to make sure MBS investors’ interest are considered in the equation.

Mike Crapo, R-ID, chairman of the committee, said housing finance reform is one of his top priorities.

A key Treasury Department official suggested that issuers of non-agency MBS may someday participate in the common securitization platform being developed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Community mortgage lenders called for an investigation of pricing practices of private mortgage insurers regarding their use of volume discounts and other incentives to get more business from lenders selling loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, the Community Home Lenders Association raised concerns about “pricing disparities” in lender-paid mortgage insurance based on lender size and volume. Such practices may involve better pricing offers to larger lenders or bidding out loan pools based on the percentage of discounts larger lenders get from their customary private MI pricing, the CHLA said. In addition, some private MIs offer special pricing to lenders that agree to do business exclusively with them – a type of proxy for volume discount. The group asked the FHFA, as the regulator of Fannie and Freddie, to investigate whether ...

Issuance of the government-sponsored enterprises’ credit-risk transfers has been growing consistently over the last five years, according to Suzanne Mistretta, senior director at Fitch Ratings.

The higher delinquency rates on FHA/VA loans are likely tied to hurricanes that struck select markets last fall.

Fannie disclosed the single-security “may adversely affect our financial results and contribute to declines in the liquidity or market value of our MBS.”

Packaging the loans into a non-agency MBS suggests that Flagstar expects better execution in the non-agency market than from delivering the mortgages to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.