The FHFA permitted Fannie Mae to continue without the ability to assess repurchase late fees because the GSE claimed the cost of setting up such a program could cost $5.4 million

Worried that New York State regulators will throw a monkey-wrench into Ocwen’s mortgage servicing acquisition plans? Don’t be.

Although Flagstar led the pack, it was the only bank to rank among the top five sellers of brokered loans.

Also, Morgan Stanley recently increased its stake in Arch Capital Group to 6.3 percent. Arch owns CMG Mortgage Insurance, which is being renamed Arch Mortgage Insurance Company.

January 2014 marked the fourth month in a row where combined agency securitization included more purchase-money mortgages than refinances, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

New production of single-family agency MBS in January 2014 fell to its lowest monthly volume in five years, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae generated a total of $67.82 billion in single-family MBS last month, a 10.4 percent drop from December 2013. It was the weakest monthly issuance since January 2009, when $64.39 billion of new agency MBS were produced as world financial markets tried to recover from collapse. Market conditions – if you don’t consider the weather outside – were...[Includes one data chart]

What’s the best way to entice a workaholic mortgage loan officer who knows how to bring home the bacon? Answer: Pay them a huge signing bonus.

Despite new public pronouncements by lawmakers and administration officials that housing finance reform remains a “top priority,” industry observers warn there is little chance of legislation clearing Congress, ensuring a status quo that leaves the uber-profitable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in place and pumping money into the Treasury. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, broke a long public silence by reiterating their intention to push bipartisan housing finance reform in a statement on Wednesday.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – during two different periods last year – spent nearly $20 billion buying roughly 85,000 loans despite clear warnings or questions about the appraisals, according to a new audit from the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. As part of its report, the FHFA-OIG has made 14 recommendations to FHFA regarding the matter, calling on the regulator to ensure the GSEs make better use of appraisal information generated by a uniform collateral data portal the agency told the two to develop in 2010.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, as part of its new “servicing project,” is once again reviewing minimum fees paid to servicers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, according to industry advisors briefed on the matter. Among other things, the servicing project is reviewing how large-scale packages of GSE receivables are sold and transferred. This was not entirely unexpected, given the massive sales of mortgage servicing rights the past 18 months. But mortgage bankers thought changing the minimum servicing fee of 25 basis points was a dead issue.