Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, suggested the widespread view that Congress won’t get around to resolving the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be too pessimistic. Speaking at a Mortgage Bankers Association conference in Washington, DC, this week, Warner said, “This may surprise some folks, but I think the stars may align where you could actually see housing-finance reform happen in front of some of the Dodd-Frank reform.” Warner, who co-authored a reform bill four years ago, said...

We can only assume Sen. Warner knows Freddie Mac is headquartered in his state, which means the company’s employees are his constituents.

Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-IL, and Gwen Moore, D-WI, want to restore Federal Home Loan Bank membership for captive insurance lenders that joined the system prior to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s rulemaking that restricted membership of firms that would otherwise be ineligible. H.R. 289, the Housing Opportunity Mortgage Expansion (HOME) Act, would allow FHLBank members that were booted from the system to rejoin it, as well as the retention of those whose departure is pending, if they can demonstrate a commitment to residential mortgage activities. Most of the affected companies are real estate investment trusts. The sponsors explained...

Sen. Warner noted the Trump administration is committed to doing something about the GSEs…

The Nationstar news begs another question: Will Ocwen Financial, which employs thousands of servicing workers overseas, follow suit?

Bottom line: Nonbank mortgage firms don’t want another regulator to answer to…

FBR believes continued changes at FHA will benefit private mortgage insurers...

Counterparty risk appears to be on the mind of the FHFA…

There will likely be more buyback demands on the 2015 book of business in the future, but the total may not ever get to even 0.1 percent of issuance.

The Fannie Mae portion of the MSR sale is expected to close sometime in the third quarter.