Bank of America, which is among the 18 original defendants, has not yet settled and faces the largest liability because of its ownership of Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch.

There has been some speculation that DeMarco might want the CSP CEO job, which pays in the range of $400,000. But many sources we talked to doubt it will happen.

The Federal Open Market Committee this week voted to scale back the central bank’s purchases of agency MBS again, dropping the monthly growth target to $25 billion, but the deceleration is barely keeping even with the rapid slowdown in new MBS issuance. At its December meeting, the FOMC decided to drop its MBS purchases to a pace that would add $35 billion per month, and lowered that by another $5 billion at its January meeting. The program began in late 2012 at $40 billion a month. The central bank will continue to reinvest principal and interest payments on its holdings in the agency MBS market. The most recent available data show...[Includes two data charts]

Bipartisan mortgage-finance reform legislation from leaders in the Senate focuses on replacing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization programs with a new government MBS guaranty, but it also includes options for MBS issued outside the proposed agency-like structure. Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, this week revealed the text of their Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act, which may have little chance of passage this year but may be the starting point for reform in the next Congress. Johnson-Crapo would create...

The mortgage securitization sector is pleased that the bipartisan agreement between Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, on housing-finance reform includes a small but critical provision to support the to-be-announced market. The 442-page draft sets a five-year timeline to shut down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and in their place create a new Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp., a utility that securitizes and guarantees mortgages. The government’s MBS guaranty would be supported by a 10 percent first-loss piece funded by private investors. The FMIC would approve...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to develop their new common securitization platform in relative secrecy, although the concept has become a key component of mortgage-finance reform recently unveiled by the leadership of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Under the bill drafted by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, the CSP would operate as a privately-owned utility through which single-family MBS would be issued, with or without the new explicit government guaranty. Regulated by the new overseer of the MBS market, the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp., the platform would shepherd...

At the end of 2013, the Fed’s holdings topped the commercial banking industry’s total MBS portfolio of $1.369 trillion, and it accounted for 26.6 percent of the $5.601 billion of agency single-family MBS outstanding at that time, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

The OMB recently estimated that Fannie and Freddie will pump more than $179 billion into the Treasury over the next 10 years, assuming the two GSEs remain in operation and continue to pay dividends to the government.

All the world loves the CFPB? Not in the mortgage space, it seems. Financial services consultant Joe Garrett said he has six mortgage clients that have undergone exams by the agency. To say the least, it hasn't been a happy experience.

Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, finally delivered this week their long-awaited mortgage reform bill that provides for a wind down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and create in their place a new mortgage insurance entity to act as a new federal backstop. The 442-page draft by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sets a five-year timeline to shut down the two GSEs, while creating the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp., a utility that securitizes and guarantees mortgages.