Declining refinance volume contributed to a marked decline in the GSEs’ overall business during September compared to the previous month, with Fannie Mae seeing a rise volume to the detriment of Freddie Mac, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis.Fannie and Freddie issued $78.6 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter, a 20.0 percent decline from August but a 9.0 percent rise for the first nine months of 2013. [Includes one data chart.]

After an eight-year hiatus, the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco announced last week it would renew its participation in the Mortgage Partnership Finance program, which is managed by the FHLBank of Chicago. Starting in 2014, the San Francisco Bank will purchase conventional, conforming fixed-rate mortgages and FHA/VA products, as well as purchase fixed-rate loans from its members for sale to Fannie Mae through the MPF Xtra program.

Fannie Mae officials said this week their decision to study from Freddie Mac’s inaugural risk-sharing transaction prompted them to take the time to obtain a rating on the deal. Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities Series 2013-C01 is scheduled to close on Oct. 24, according to a presale report released late last week by Fitch Ratings.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week made the common securitization platform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a legal entity, filing paperwork with Delaware’s Division of Corporations, creating a limited liability company called Common Securitization Solutions LLC. The new limited liability company will be jointly owned by the two GSEs and will assume Fannie’s and Freddie’s securitization functions.

GSEs Issue Government Shutdown Guidance. Freddie Mac this week followed Fannie Mae in issuing new, temporary guidelines to servicers and sellers of single-family mortgages as the nation began its second week of the government shutdown. The GSEs have temporarily revised their selling guidelines to permit lenders to verify Social Security and IRS transcripts after the closing but before the delivery date of the loan.“Servicers can offer unemployment forbearance to borrowers that have a financial hardship as a result of the shutdown and must suspend credit reporting for those borrowers,” said Fannie.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized $285 billion of single-family mortgages during the third quarter, an almost 16 percent drop from the previous three-month period. As for the outlook for the fourth quarter, the industry is nervous.

With most of FHA's staff on furlough, the private mortgage insurance sector sees an opportunity to gain business.

Members of the House believe FHFA does not have the legal authority under HERA to reduce GSE loan limits.

Despite continuing growth in purchase-mortgage production, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a marked decline in their overall business during the third quarter of 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized $284.9 billion of single-family mortgages during the third quarter, a 15.6 percent drop from the previous three-month period. It marked the lowest quarterly production for the GSEs since the second quarter of last year and it was attributable to a sharp drop in refinance activity. Fannie and Freddie securitized...[Includes three data charts]

Large lenders appear to be coping better with the partial federal government shutdown, but that doesn’t mean the megabanks aren’t worried about the situation. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance, lenders big and small are adjusting the way they conduct business in the primary and secondary markets in the wake of the government shutdown, now in its second week. Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, the largest correspondent buyers of mortgages, are waiving...