Small lenders should be afforded equal access to the secondary market and the same execution opportunities as their larger contemporaries, and they would under a reform plan proposed by the Mortgage Bankers Association. A concept paper released by the MBA this week recommends immediate steps the Federal Housing Finance Agency can take by way of secondary market reform of the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on behalf of lenders of all sizes, including inducing comparable guaranty fees and eliminating underwriting concessions for large lenders. The MBA called...
There is at least one curiosity in the GSE draft bill: any individual who ever served as a director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is prohibited from serving as a board member on the new Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp.
Despite the vocal support of progressives, especially advocates of principal reduction of GSE-held loans, Rep. Watts nomination to head FHFA is far from a sure thing.
Any successor to the GSEs that operates with a federal guarantee should charge the same guaranty fee price for all sellers, regardless of size, the trade group says.
Speculators have been gobbling up GSE junior preferred and common, hoping for a payout down the road tied to either the resumption of dividends or money that might come from a recovery fund.
The auction market for nonperforming mortgages is picking up a full head of steam this year and could be bolstered by securitizations, according to investors and advisors who play in that space. Gordon Albrecht, executive vice president of FCI Lender Services, said he has a hedge fund client that is presently working on a $40 million securitization of nonperforming residential loans. Albrecht said he could not identify the client, though he noted that Wells Fargo is involved in the transaction along with a foreign bank. He added...