After several months of being in the test phase, Fannie Mae officially released its new loan delivery application on Dec. 1. The new platform was designed to be easier to navigate with enhanced reporting capabilities, greater transparency and improved edit management capabilities. Customers have had a chance to get familiar with the program and take advantage of an online tutorial since September. For those ready to fully implement the application, it’s up and running on Fannie’s website as of this week, but there’s still time to ease into it. Both the old and new loan delivery applications will be available during the transition period. Lenders...

Marking several milestones, including the first time that Freddie Mac has issued both a Structured Agency Credit Risk offering and Agency Credit Insurance Structure in the same month, the GSE announced last week that it will sell more than $590 million in STACR 2015-HQA2. This is its last STACR offering for the year and it obtained its largest Agency Credit Insurance Structure so far, for a combined $702.4 million limit. The two are related. Through Freddie’s ACIS program, the GSE buys insurance policies that transfer a portion of the credit risk associated with its STACR debt note reference pools from insurance and reinsurance companies around the world.

Fannie Mae said that in the midst of trying to reach first-time homebuyers, a new trend has emerged with existing homeowners struggling to become repeat, move-up buyers.There was a 40 percent decrease in repeat buyers from 2002 to 2014, according to recent commentary from Jude Landis, vice president, single-family credit policy at Fannie. Credit did not appear to be holding them back either, because even among homeowners with mid-tier credit scores, between 680 and 740, the number of repeat home purchases dropped dramatically. “Owners of their first homes may have the credit eligibility to move up, but low housing equity appear to be holding them back,” she said.

Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency said that Freddie Mac failed to meet all of its goals for low-income homebuyers in 2014, the GSE apparently has put the wheels in motion to meet its target for 2015. But Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development, wrote the FHFA asking why the goals fell by the wayside.Don Layton, Freddie’s CEO, told Inside The GSEs that the GSE has been working since early in the year to make sure those goals are met. Those preparations included the hiring of Danny Gardner in March, who leads a new unit specializing in affordable housing.

  FHFA Debuts FHFA Insights Blog. This week the Federal Finance Housing Agency launched a new blog titled FHFA Insights. The blog, located on the agency’s website, is designed to serve as a resource for a wide range of stakeholders, including homeowners, renters, policy makers, media and the general public. The FHFA’s most recent blog entry this week focuses on the expansion of the Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative which went into effect Dec. 1. …

At the same time, credit standards – at least in the agency market – have eased only slightly over the past two years...

Now that President Obama has signed legislation to cap Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac CEO pay, which GSE chief will leave first?

Most mortgage lenders reported a significant uptick in purchase-mortgage originations during the third quarter of 2015, though there is little sign that originators are lowering credit standards to stimulate more business. According to revised estimates by Inside Mortgage Finance, purchase-mortgage originations climbed 10.7 percent from the second to the third quarter of this year, hitting $280 billion. At that level, the purchase market was the strongest it has been since the third quarter of 2007. At the same time, credit standards – at least in the agency market – have eased...[Includes two data tables]

Fannie Mae last week updated its policies to allow seller/servicers to pledge a transfer of interest in their servicing income as collateral. Now Fannie, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae have three different approaches for the pledge of servicing income and/or servicing advances. David Fleig, president and CEO of MorVest Capital, an investment firm, noted that the update by Fannie follows a move by Ginnie. Last year, Ginnie started allowing issuers to pledge servicing income without notifying Ginnie. Fannie’s new policy requires...

Although most of the heavy lifting in writing new rules for the mortgage industry has passed, federal regulators still have some significant projects in the works, according to recently released semiannual regulatory agendas. The Federal Housing Finance Agency expects to release a proposed “duty-to-serve” regulation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the end of this year. The rulemaking was mandated by the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act but hasn’t gotten much attention since the agency published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking back in August 2009. The FHFA is...