Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized a total of $43.18 billion of single-family mortgages that carried private mortgage insurance during the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. That was down 25.8 percent from the $58.18 billion of private MI mortgages securitized by the two government-sponsored enterprises in the third quarter of last year. The silver lining was that overall GSE production declined even more, with new GSE mortgage-backed security issuance dropping 36.1 percent from the third to the fourth quarter. Overall, some 23.8 percent of GSE-securitized single-family mortgages had...[Includes two data charts]
When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveil their fourth-quarter 2013 results in February, the two government-sponsored enterprises are expected to again report strong earnings driven by: higher guaranty fee income, one-time gains tied to legal settlements, and a boost from lower loan-loss reserves. But most of the money will be swept straight into the U.S. Treasury. One of the major factors in the GSEs’ huge 2013 earnings so far – the release of deferred tax assets – will likely be...
Three House Democrats plan to introduce a new housing-finance reform bill that would leverage the Ginnie Mae mortgage-securitization infrastructure and private mortgage insurers. The reform proposal by Reps. John Delaney (MD), John Carney (AL) and Jim Himes (CT) would establish a system of government reinsurance for eligible mortgage-backed securities. The idea is to leverage the government’s capacity and market’s ability to price risk, they said. Their plan calls...
Comments made Wednesday by the Treasury Department’s point man on GSE reform, Michael Stegman, did not go unnoticed by employees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
One servicing advisor told IMFnews that the regulator “now has the last word on all MSR transfer approvals. It began in December and has slowed the process a bit.”
The hunger for GSE speculation is also causing some investors to buy Fannie/Freddie common which has been rising of late, but not by much. However, one GSE watcher believes that buying the common, "is a fool’s game."
In other words, the White House still wants to dismantle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and doesn't seem to care about all the money the two are returning to the government.
The change resulted in the cessation of dividend payments by the GSEs to Treasury, replacing it with a “sweep” of all almost net profits earned by Fannie and Freddie.
Refinance mortgages accounted for 80.1 percent of agency production back in 2012, but that declined to 65.6 percent last year and just 45.3 percent of fourth-quarter business.
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