The qualified mortgage is here, and while the rotation of the earth has yet to slow, there are still several areas of the regulation that are not crystal clear to much of the industry, including some questions having to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchases of mortgages being originated under the new regime. For instance, “If lenders bake the loan-level price adjustments into the interest rate, are they allowed to show those adjustments to the originator? If they show them, will the CFPB count them into the points and fees?” asked Tammy...

Although the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac common securitization platform is now legally incorporated, has a signed lease for office space in suburban Maryland and is growing staff, it still doesn’t have a chief executive and chairman – two essentials to be taken seriously by the market. “It’s pretty much turned into the mess I suspected it would a year ago,” said one former candidate for the CEO job, who spoke under the condition his name not be used. Discussing the chairman position, he added...

DOJ’s initial penalty calculation was based on the gross loss to Fannie and Freddie from the default of the loans, but now the government says the court should use gross gain, instead of net gain to set the maximum allowable penalty.

A Manhattan federal bankruptcy court this week approved Lehman Brother’s proposed $2 billion-plus settlement that would end an $18.9 billion claim filed against the defunct investment bank by Fannie Mae over soured mortgage securities. Judge James Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, signed off on the settlement agreement between Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the government-sponsored enterprise, as well as Lehman’s wholly owned subsidiaries Aurora Commercial Group and Aurora Loan Services. ALS was a large Alt A lender/servicer. The deal grants...

At deadline we got wind of a former Wall Street investment banker who is setting up a fund to help independent mortgage firms (nonbanks) raise capital.

The FHFA’s final rule on golden parachutes applies to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks and the Office of Finance, as well as any “entity-affiliated parties,” including independent contractors.

Mortgage originations late last year sank to the lowest production level since the bottom fell out of financial markets in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Lenders generated an estimated $305 billion in new originations during the fourth quarter of last year, a 33.7 percent decline from the third quarter. The mortgage market hasn’t been that slow since the fourth quarter of 2008, when production totaled just $260 billion. Production volume was...[Includes two data charts]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s new “servicing project” will take a close look at how large-scale packages of mortgage-servicing rights are sold and transferred, but will also delve into what mortgage bankers thought was a dead issue: minimum servicing fees paid to processors. “You might say that FHFA is tackling the whole servicing arena in a big way,” said one mortgage consultant who has been briefed on the agency’s plans. The regulator’s sudden interest in transfers comes...

Amid growing calls by lawmakers and policy advocates to divert some of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s increasing profitability to an affordable housing commitment, industry observers speculate that new Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt is seriously inclined to act that way. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 requires the government-sponsored enterprises to make annual contributions to the National Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund. Fannie and Freddie were put in government conservatorship before they ever made any contribution. Late last week, more than 30 Senate Democrats told...

One of the complications of the federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been the injection of uncertainty over whether the two government-sponsored enterprises can foreclose by advertisement due to Uncle Sam’s control of the companies. That has bred some novel legal arguments against the GSEs’ ability in this regard, but they have met with mixed results thus far. “Over the past several months, one of the newer arguments challenging foreclosure by borrowers is...