Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generated a combined $4.86 billion in net income during the second quarter of 2017, down a modest 2.4 percent from the first three months of the year, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of earnings reports released this week. The two government-sponsored enterprises have racked up $9.85 billion in net income through the first six months of the year, more than double their combined earnings for the same period in 2016. In the first quarter of last year, interest rate volatility yielded significant accounting losses on their hedges, which suppressed net income at Fannie and produced a net loss at Freddie. Freddie officials said...

Housing finance groups are concerned that the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s idea to better serve borrowers with limited proficiency in English by adding a language preference question to loan applications could create a host of legal challenges and systemic risks. A year ago, the FHFA decided to defer a plan to include a question about a borrower’s language preference on the uniform residential loan application, and gather more input instead. The agency specifically asked for information on potential short-term and long-term improvements to help borrowers not fluent in English better understand the mortgage process. And from the looks of the comments, it appears...

Watt noted that, “Some lenders are finally showing more willingness to extend credit to borrowers who meet the broader credit criteria reflected in the enterprises’ credit boxes…”

Cowen & Co. analyst Jaret Seiberg believes the Senate Banking Committee remains on track to unveil GSE reform legislation late in the fourth quarter...

Freddie expects to make a $2 billion dividend payment to Treasury – the holder of its senior preferred stock – sometime in September.

Freddie Mac CEO Don Layton: "The fundamentals are strong and residual flaws are gone..."

“Some lenders are finally showing more willingness to extend credit to borrowers..." said FHFA Director Mel Watt.

Movement Mortgage was the largest seller of MSRs through co-issuance deals…

“This new trove of documents conclusively shows that the net worth sweep was designed solely to boost Treasury’s coffers and prevent the GSEs from rebuilding capital or exiting conservatorship,” said Investors Unite, a shareholder rights group.

Fannie said that about 3 or 4 percent of DU applications with DTI ratios ranging from 45 percent to 50 percent had been deemed ineligible because they failed the overlay test…