Capitalizing on the uncertainty of a government shutdown, private mortgage insurers are stepping up to provide conventional mortgage insurance on any loan with FHA documentation that could not close on time due to delays at the undermanned agency. Private MIs say they are “ready to help with FHA uncertainty,” urging lenders to consider switching to conventional mortgage insurance if they have any government-insured or guaranteed loan that is at risk of not closing due to the shutdown. United Guaranty said...

Residential lenders realize that eventually the industry will face lower loan limits for Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac mortgages, but they now hope the day of reckoning won’t come until sometime in the second quarter of 2014. “[The Federal Housing Finance Agency] is still trying to figure out what to do,” said one industry lobbyist who spoke under condition his name not be published. “They never thought they’d face this much resistance.” Industry groups and members of Congress have been besieging the agency with challenges to its authority to lower the limits for the government-sponsored enterprises and pleas to defer any such changes. As reported in the Oct. 4 issue of Inside Mortgage Finance, 13 Senators – including two Republicans – recently wrote...

The Obama administration is working to reform the government-sponsored enterprises but has said little publicly about its efforts for political reasons, according to a former advisor for the administration. As for when Congress might pass GSE reform, predictions range from as soon as next year to sometime after Obama’s presidency, if at all. Speaking at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in Miami, Jim Parrott, owner of Falling Creek Advisors and a senior advisor at the National Economic Council until earlier this year, said the Obama administration has largely avoided publicly pushing GSE reform since releasing a white paper on the issue in 2011 due to concerns about reactions from Republicans in Congress. “The administration has been quite involved...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to test parts of a common securitization platform under development by year-end, according to an official at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA separately announced this week what it deemed to be “significant steps” for the government-sponsored enterprises’ planned CSP. A year-and-a-half after the federal regulator announced the project, the platform remains a nebulous goal that GSE officials hope to make exceedingly encompassing and flexible. Speaking this week at the ABS East conference in Miami sponsored by Information Management Network, Wanda de Leo, deputy director of the FHFA’s office of strategic initiatives, said...

Among other things, the Federal Home Loan Banks want to maintain their ability to securitize residential mortgages for their members.

The CMC letter follows one sent last night by 15 housing and mortgage-related trade groups to Acting FHFA Director Edward DeMarco, asking him not to lower the GSE loan limit, while questioning the legality of such a change.

ABA will send FHFA its own letter on GSE loan limits. Meanwhile, CFPB finds two mortgage bankers over RESPA violations.

As usual, the Federal Housing Finance Agency provided as little detail as possible in its new disclosures on the common securitization platform.

The Supreme Court's decision sends the defendant banks back to federal district court where they will be able to appeal at a later date should an adverse ruling directly affect them.

Laurel Davis, a vice president at Fannie Mae, said the GSE learned from Freddie’s transaction and the pending risk-sharing deal from Fannie is set to receive an investment grade rating from Fitch Ratings.