The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association emphasized its concerns about the GSEs’ single security initiative in a letter sent last week to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. A large part of SIFMA’s letter focused on a lack of alignment between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The trade group believes that the FHFA doesn’t have a strong enough role in maintaining the policy and practice alignment of the GSEs. “This causes significant concern about the potential outcome of the initiative,” the letter said, adding that the effective alignment of policies and practices, to achieve a continuing alignment to security performance, is the single most important factor in the success, or lack thereof, of the initiative.

What do nonbanks think about depositories avoiding the wholesale/broker sector? They love it.

 Fannie Research Shows House Price Decline for Some Oil States: The prospect of an oil bust draws comparisons to the housing slump of the 1980s in Fannie Mae’s  research released Aug. 28. While most Americans enjoyed lower gasoline prices over that period, severe employment losses occurred within the oil industry, and many oil-producing states experienced general economic slowdowns and declining house prices. North Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska are most at risk.     …

If Fannie Mae's origination forecast comes true, just $615 billion in loans will be written from July 1 to Dec. 31, an ugly outlook indeed…

HomeReady will become part of DU later this year and replaces the MyCommunityMortgage product, which in some circles was known as Fannie’s “subprime” option.

A former FHA commissioner, Stevens said GSE reform should include a new charter for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

Freddie’s multifamily business grew so much that some industry observers worried that the GSE could reach the $30 billion annual multifamily business cap set by the FHFA.

Many wealthy borrowers feel rich because they’re sitting on huge stock market gains achieved over the past few years. But now...

Commercial banks and savings institutions kept increasing their stake in agency mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis.

Commercial banks and savings institutions continued to grow their investments in agency MBS during the second quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. Banks and thrifts held $1.583 trillion of agency and non-agency MBS on their balance sheets at the end of June. That was up just 0.3 percent from the first quarter, but it was the highest level since the first nine months of 2012, when bank and thrift MBS holdings topped $1.60 trillion. All the gain came...[Includes two data tables]