But isn’t the job of a conservator to preserve assets? If CRT deals are bad financially for Fannie and Freddie, isn’t it time to pull the plug on them?...

However, on Wednesday, five members of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to FHFA Director Mel Watt, warning him against taking any administrative action that might alter the dividend payment.

The GSEs have developed proposals to more closely align their mortgage insurance master policies with their reps-and-warranties policies, which will be reviewed by the FHFA this year.

But the issue is hardly settled. Ron Haynie, senior vice president of mortgage policy at the ICBA, told Inside Mortgage Finance that he expects a change in the dividend payment this year.

Joe Farr, director of marketing for MBS Quoteline, said MBS prices have actually improved since the Federal Reserve’s decision to hike rates one week ago.

The top tier of mortgage producers gained some market share in 2016, but call-report data show that community banks continued to play a huge role in the primary market, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The top 100 lenders produced a hefty $1.622 trillion in first-lien mortgages last year, including their correspondent and wholesale-broker programs. Although their production faltered by 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter, full-year volume was up 18.2 percent from 2015. Banks, thrifts and credit unions ended...[Includes two data tables]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “made significant progress” in meeting the goals of their conservatorships for 2016, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Most of the objectives set by the so-called scorecard were focused on testing new concepts or perfecting existing ones, and relatively few of them had hard targets in terms of business volume. A first strategic goal for the government-sponsored enterprises was to maintain credit availability, including increasing access to credit. There has been barely any change in the credit profile of the two GSEs’ business, and the regulator did not set any specific goals other than the affordable housing goals. And some critics would argue that the FHFA hasn’t done much to encourage more risk taking in that it has held guarantee fees steady. Last year, both Fannie and Freddie started...

Over the past six quarters, selling Ginnie Mae servicing rights has been a difficult task with buyers turning their noses up at the product, preferring instead to stay within the safe confines of deals tied to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. According to investment bankers interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance, the Ginnie market for mortgage servicing rights has been problematic for two main reasons: the fear of lawsuits and sanctions tied to FHA lending, and fast prepayment speeds tied to FHA and VA streamline refis. But now that rates have risen – and mostly stayed that way – there are...

As the clock ticks down on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac running out of a capital buffer in early 2018, there is a growing belief in the mortgage industry that the Federal Housing Finance Agency will move to change dividends payments by the two from a quarterly to an annual basis. If the FHFA pulls the trigger, it would allow the government-sponsored enterprises to sit on a pile of cash before upstreaming it to Treasury – money that would give them a buffer if rates turn the wrong way and a hedging loss ensues in a given quarter. Ron Haynie, senior vice president of mortgage policy at the Independent Community Bankers of America, told...

Since 2012 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have provided the government with a hefty amount of funds thanks to the Treasury sweep of GSE profits, which could be a perverse disincentive to move forward on housing finance reform. The two government-sponsored enterprises expected to pass along a combined $9.97 billion during the first quarter of 2017, the net profits they earned in the fourth quarter that exceeded the $600 million cap on retained capital. That brings...