The volume of new business flowing through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – a lagging indicator of primary market originations – declined modestly during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized $337.74 billion of single-family mortgages during the second quarter, down 5.1 percent from the first three months of the year. The decline reversed an upward trend in quarterly GSE production that started in the third quarter of 2012. Even with the downturn, business at Fannie and Freddie was up 20.0 percent over the first six months of last year. The second-quarter decline clearly reflected...[Includes three data charts]

Hedge fund giant Cerberus Capital Management has quietly purchased a nonbank mortgage company based in Georgia and plans to use the firm to grow it into a national player in residential finance, according to industry sources close to the deal. One official inside of Cerberus confirmed the purchase to Inside Mortgage Finance as well as some of the growth plans, but declined to identify the company. Cerberus, which makes investments worldwide, operates dozens of funds, many of which target specific sectors or projects. The sale was facilitated...

The uphill climb for the Congressman who would be the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency got a little steeper last week following a lackluster confirmation performance that did not appear to win over Republican critics. Both in his prepared testimony and during questioning by members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, placed a heavy emphasis on his biographical details, but he was light on mortgage-finance policy specifics. Republicans pressed hard on his technical qualifications for the job of FHFA director. “The Housing and Economic Recovery Act clearly defines...

Japanese investors increased their holdings of agency MBS by $32 billion and even boosted their non-agency MBS investments by $1.4 billion.

When rates shot up quickly, were some MBS investors caught behind the eight-ball?

A former federal prosecutor, Linick is credited with creating the agency’s Office of Inspector General from the ground up.

According to exclusive figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Trends, Citigroup had $748 million of disputed buybacks with the GSEs at March 31.

On Tuesday the Fed will hold an open meeting to discuss final rule-making tied to the Basel III accords, which affects the value of mortgage servicing rights.

The recent rapid rise in interest rates has some market participants talking about margin calls on MBS investors, but so far all the chatter appears to be speculative – although there still could be red ink out there, somewhere. At press time, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury had stabilized at 2.54 percent. In mid-May the rate was 1.70 percent. That’s a run-up of 84 basis points. One secondary market official told...

Secondary market reform legislation formally introduced in the Senate this week provides more detail on key elements of an ambitious proposal to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a new government MBS program, but it’s still widely seen as a starting point in a long process. The Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013, introduced by Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, includes a new section that would protect investors in MBS that carry guaranties from the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. from civil liability under federal and state law. Under the bill, S. 1217, the FMIC would sell...