Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their conservator/regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have provided significant comments and recommendations regarding the role of private mortgage insurers under a new housing-finance system. The GSEs and the FHFA submitted their views on private mortgage insurers as part of broader commentaries provided to the Treasury Department on the Senate bipartisan reform bill drafted by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID. The bill would wind down the two government-sponsored enterprises and replace them with a new securitization structure requiring that private capital absorb the first 10 percent of losses on a new breed of conventional mortgage-backed securities. To be eligible for the new MBS program, mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 80 percent would have...
A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of agency mortgage-backed securities data shows that mortgage production fell sharply in virtually all states during the first quarter. The top three states – California, Texas and Florida – fared somewhat better than the overall market. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized some $34.9 billion of California single-family mortgages during the first quarter of 2014, down 25.4 percent from the fourth quarter. But the overall agency MBS market fell 27.2 percent over that period. Texas, down 41.4 percent from the first quarter of 2013, and Florida (off 48.7 percent) both had...[Includes one data chart]
Under the original conservatorship agreement, the GSEs are allowed to maintain a small capital buffer, but within three years that buffer will be reduced to zero.
MBA believes the imposition of compensatory fees has morphed into a risk-sharing mechanism that shifts the costs of the prolonged foreclosure process from the GSEs onto mortgage servicers.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND, a co-sponsor of the Johnson-Crapo bill, also said the measure is moving forward. “This train is leaving the station,” she said. But whether it makes it to the floor of the Senate is another matter.
As far as pricing goes, if g-fees are raised Fannie and Freddie could earn more money – cash that ultimately would wind up at the Treasury Department, which sweeps most of their earnings each quarter.
A new trade group is showing true love for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Also, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is giving lenders some breathing room on the Qualified Mortgage/Ability-to-Repay rule.
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