Essent Group, a privately capitalized mortgage insurance firm, has announced plans to raise $286 million through the sale of 19.7 million common shares to fund the growth of its MI subsidiary. The initial public offering will be made at a price range of $13.50 to $15.50 per share, according to the company’s filing with Securities and Exchange Commission. Domiciled in Bermuda, Essent has been approved to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ESNT.” Essent Group is offering...

California was the biggest source of private MI loans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the state doesn’t dominate the GSE insured market the way it does in other measures.

U.S. prosecutors estimate that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost almost $850 million (gross) from Countrywide's "Hustle" program. However, at the time, BofA didn't even own CFC.

As directed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year established a three-year sunset period for most reps and warrants on loans with perfect payment histories.

Early indicators suggest that private mortgage insurers saw an uptick in new business during the third quarter, a time when most mortgage production indicators were losing momentum. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized a total of $58.18 billion of single-family loans that were insured by private MIs during the third quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level detail. That was up 3.7 percent from the second quarter at a time when total production by the two government-sponsored enterprises declined by 15.6 percent. Private MI-insured loans accounted...[Includes two data charts]

Most mortgage lenders outside of the megabanks will say publicly they don’t want lower Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limits, but privately they’ll admit they can live with it, but with one major caveat: how much lower are we talking about? Moreover, preparing for changes to loan software systems and product menus should not be a big deal, several executives told Inside Mortgage Finance. Their biggest concern is...

Mortgage lenders far and wide have been laying off full-time staffers by the thousands over the past month as the industry adjusts to both lower originations and a lighter workload tied to the servicing of problem loans. The latest casualties include Wells Fargo, which recently announced plans to cut an additional 925 mortgage “team members” across the U.S.; SunTrust (800 positions); Mortgage Investors Corp. (500); and CashCall (486). Wells cut 5,300 mortgage workers in the third quarter alone, but that figure does not include the latest bloodletting. JPMorgan Chase estimates by the time 2013 ends it will have cut 11,000 mortgage-related jobs. Moreover, according to officials at executive search firms, now mortgage vendors are...

Mortgage finance reform is getting more attention on Capitol Hill after Congress gave itself a few more months of breathing room on budget and debt issues, but industry observers say there is increased chatter from champions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who insist that killing them outright would do the mortgage market more harm than good. “There seems to be a bipartisan commitment to encourage private capital support for the U.S. housing market while winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that hold dominant positions in the mortgage market,” noted analysts from Standards & Poor’s in a report last week. In the Senate, Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, continue...

Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington Thursday afternoon, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco gave no hint how much of a reduction might be in store. He also took no questions from the audience.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to promptly notify the agency whenever they detect fraud “or other financial misconduct” with any business entity they have done business with during the past three years.