Although the GSEs are reviewing loans to make sure the new TRID forms are being used, not for technical compliance, Fannie Mae’s survey of lenders on the impact of TRID showed vendor coordination and communication with key players have been the biggest challenges.More than three quarters of the lenders surveyed cited challenges when it comes to managing and coordinating third-party technology vendors and communication with buyers, sellers and loan officers. In addition, smaller lenders said they feel more burdened since the rule took effect in October. Fannie said many small- to-midsized lenders indicated that they don’t have the same resources as larger institutions which can easily invest in upgrading systems and have in-house compliance resources to...

In almost 19 months, the capital cushions at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will fall to zero, which means if either government-sponsored enterprise (or both) suffers a net loss in a quarter, Uncle Sam will need to step in and supply cash to get the afflicted party back to zero. Depending on whom you talk to in the mortgage industry, a capital draw from Treasury could set off irrational behavior on the part of Congress or it’s much ado about nothing. …

Freddie Mac reduced its portfolio to $339.9 billion at the end of the quarter, a 2.0 percent drop. Like Fannie, the biggest decline in percentage terms was in non-agency MBS…

Investor Unite’s Tim Pagliara said that a stay would prejudice him under Virginia law, where the case is to be “expedited” and could be resolved on the merits…

A surge of new refinance business and a seasonal uptick in purchase-mortgage activity helped lift agency issuance of single-family MBS in April, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae produced $108.95 billion of new single-family MBS last month, the strongest monthly output since September 2015. Gross new issuance was up 9.8 percent from March, but on a year-to-date basis, production was still down 3.9 percent from the volume generated in the first four months of 2015. Ginnie saw...[Includes two data tables]

Banks generally eased their lending standards for most types of residential mortgage loans in the first quarter of 2016, even as consumer demand for such credit increased, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest senior loan officer opinion survey. During the period ending March 31, a “moderate net fraction” of banks reported having eased standards on mortgages eligible for purchase by the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while a similar number of institutions indicated they had eased standards on “qualified mortgage” and non-QM jumbo mortgages, as well as on QM non-jumbo, non-GSE-eligible and on non-QM, non-jumbo residential mortgage loans. At the same time, banks left...

Private shareholder lawsuits against the U.S. Treasury’s net worth sweep of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits are inching forward, including a squabble over the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s bid to consolidate several cases in one court. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said the proposed transfer would prevent future “copycat” cases and ensure a more consistent ruling across the board by having all of the cases heard in one court instead of scattered in different jurisdictions throughout the country. Private plaintiffs, including Tim Pagliara, director of shareholder group Investors Unite, filed...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac trimmed their retained mortgage investment portfolios in the first quarter of 2016 by a combined 2.8 percent. The Federal Housing Finance Agency directed the government-sponsored enterprises to wind down their portfolios by 15 percent each year until they reach $250 billion by 2018. At the end of the first quarter, Fannie’s mortgage-related investment portfolio dropped to $332.6 billion, a 3.6 percent decline from December 2015. The biggest drop was in the GSE’s non-agency MBS holdings, which fell 21.3 percent in the first quarter to just $13.3 billion, roughly one tenth the amount held back in the heyday of the subprime and Alt A MBS markets. Fannie plans...[Includes one data table]

Among the government-sponsored enterprises’ holdings of nonprime mortgages, non-agency mortgage-backed securities are declining much more quickly than purchased/guaranteed mortgages, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The combined nonprime MBS holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined by 9.6 percent during the first quarter of 2016 compared with the end of 2015. The GSEs’ combined purchased/guaranteed holdings of subprime mortgages and Alt A mortgages declined by 4.1 percent in that time. Similar trends are evident on a yearly basis. MBS account...

Caliber Home Loans recently loosened the standards for one of its non-qualified mortgage products. The lender’s “Fresh Start” mortgage now allows loan-to-value ratios up to 85.0 percent, up from 80.0 percent. And private mortgage insurance isn’t...[Includes five briefs]