Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their government conservator are all calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to amend proposed changes to its mortgage servicing rule because certain provisions would inhibit similar servicing goals put forth by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In a comment letter, the FHFA said its servicing alignment initiative has pushed for improved practices that are similar to the goals of the CFPB rule, but “several provisions in the recently proposed amendments would actually make those goals more difficult to achieve.” The four areas of the CFPB proposal that are especially important cover...
Policymakers should replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with mandatory mortgage insurance and a catastrophic guaranty from the federal government, according to a new paper from Promontory Financial Group, a consulting firm. The paper was prepared at the request of Genworth Financial and Promontory said the mortgage insurance firm didn’t influence the recommendations. Under Promontory’s proposal to reform the government-sponsored enterprises, private entities would both issue and guarantee their own mortgage-backed securities, private MI would be required on a loan-level basis for mortgages securitized in the new system, and a government agency would provide a back-up guaranty on the MBS payable only upon default by the MBS issuer. “Our proposal is...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency withdrew a proposed rule it was forced to issue regarding Property Assessed Clean Energy programs after prevailing in court.
The FHA is trailing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the disposition of real estate-owned properties, according to a new study from the Government Accountability Office. The study found that FHA’s net proceeds from REO sales from January 2007 through June 2012 were about 4 to 6 percentage points lower than Fannie’s and Freddie’s returns. The differences in combined returns between FHA and the government-sponsored enterprises persisted at an estimated 2 to 5 percent even after controlling for differences in value, location, market conditions and other relevant factors. In addition, the FHA took about ...
When it comes to guaranty fees, FHFA has taken "meaningful steps" to level the playing field for community lenders, one agency official testified this week.
Freddie Mac this week issued the first in a series of planned transactions from the government-sponsored enterprises to share risk with the non-agency market. Industry analysts suggest that while the transaction represents a good value for investors, the audience for the transactions structured like a synthetic collateralized debt obligation is limited. The Structured Agency Credit Risk Debt Notes 2013-DN1 included a total of $500 million in two non-guaranteed tranches sold to investors with 10-year terms, according to non-agency market participants. The STACR reference pool consists...
UBS, one of the first of the 18 big banks named in lawsuits brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency two years ago in connection with non-agency MBS purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced this week that it is seeking to settle with the FHFA following an adverse federal appeals court ruling against the Swiss and other defendants. In announcing its preliminary second quarter 2013 results, UBS said it has reached “an agreement in principle” with the FHFA to settle claims against its subsidiary UBS Americas related to residential MBS offerings between 2004 and 2007. UBS did not specify...
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will begin disseminating information for so-called specified-pool MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, as well as securities backed by loans with Small Business Administration guarantees. The move is aimed at increasing transparency in specified pools, which represent an estimated 3,500 trades, totaling $18 billion in par value, on an average daily basis. It follows a similar effort by FINRA last year in the to-be-announced market for agency MBS. Transaction data will be circulated...
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