Speculators have been driving up the price of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac junior preferred stock, hoping that given the GSE’s rapidly improving fortunes they could make a killing down the road. One hedge fund official told Inside The GSEs that Fannie junior preferred shares that had an original face value of $50 are trading in the secondary market for $8 to $9 a unit. Stock originally priced at $25 can be had for $5 and change. Fannie common stock is now trading at $2.20 per share compared to a 52-week low of just 9 cents. Fannie and Freddie recently reported record quarterly profits of $63 billion, a large chunk of it tied to the recapture of deferred tax assets. But on a pure operating basis – minus the DTA – their combined earnings are in the range of $12 billion, which is almost $50 billion annualized.

The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency would be able to review and revise the take-home pay of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Home Loan Bank executives should the director determine that a senior official’s compensation is “not reasonable or comparable” with the earnings of counterparts in similar businesses, under newly revised agency rule. An interim final rule, published by the FHFA in the May 14 Federal Register authorizes and clarifies the FHFA director’s authority to review and withhold executive compensation at Fannie, Freddie and the 12 FHLBanks in particular. “In view of FHFA’s statutory obligation to prohibit compensation to any executive officer that is not reasonable and comparable, prior review and non-objection rather than review after-the-fact can help set expectations and avoid the need for later remedial action,” explained the Finance Agency.

A New York federal judge has allowed the Justice Department to proceed with its civil fraud lawsuit against Bank of America in connection with the packaging and sale of mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but not before dismissing a significant portion of the government’s claim. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed claims for damages and penalties under the False Claims Act in an expedited ruling two weeks ago. In October 2012, the government filed suit against BofA, as successor to Countrywide, alleging BofA inherited and continued to operate Countrywide’s loan program known as the “Hustle.”

With minimal disruption to the mortgage finance system, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be transformed into gsecuritization cooperativesh that would serve as gthe best possible structureh to deliver private capital and promote stability to the mortgage market, an expert told lawmakers last week. Testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairsf Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment, Andrew Davidson, president of Andrew Davidson & Co., noted that Freddie began as an originator-owned cooperative whose goal was to grant its members access to the securitization market. Davidson suggested that senators look to the past as they grapple with a future role for the GSEs.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this week directed servicers to inform homeowners reeling from the damage inflicted by the tornados that swept through Oklahoma and other states that they may be eligible for a temporary reprieve on their mortgage payments. The GSEs’ disaster relief policies are targeted to borrowers with homes in jurisdictions President Obama has declared to be Major Disaster Areas where federal Individual Assistance programs are being made available to affected individuals and households.

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, overturning a lower court ruling that the counties and state of Michigan were entitled to collect local real estate transfer taxes from the two government-sponsored enterprises. This week’s unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said the lower court is not in a position to second-guess Congress by creating exemptions to tax statutes. “The statutes at issue here plainly state that the defendants are exempt from ‘all taxation,’” the court ruled. In June 2011, Oakland and Genesee counties each filed suit claiming Fannie and Freddie recorded deeds and other conveyances without paying the Michigan Transfer Tax.

Freddie Mac this week issued $1.04 billion of mortgage-backed securities backed by modified loans.The notes are being pooled into new Freddie Mac “Fixed-Rate Modified Participation Certificates” with new "MA-MD" prefixes. The GSE bought the majority of these loans out of participation certificates when they were at least 120 days past due. A Freddie official said that it will not sell the new bonds in the open market and instead will hold them on balance sheet.

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’ conservatorships have caused the government’s involvement in the mortgage market to “balloon to unhealthy proportions” since the two GSEs entered government conservatorship in 2008, creating far-reaching effects on the private sector, crowding out potential capital and blocking real market competition, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.The fix, the MBA suggests, calls for the Federal Housing Finance Agency to require the two GSEs to accept loans with deeper levels of credit enhancement in exchange for reductions in guaranty fees and other loan-level charges.“By requiring the GSEs to offer programs such as up-front risk sharing between lenders and the GSEs, the FHFA would be taking a big step in the right direction,” said MBA President and CEO David Stevens. “Ultimately, this would put private capital, not taxpayers, in the first loss position and would allow lenders of all sizes to compete, driving down costs for borrowers.”

Freddie Mac is creating a large MBS backed by reperforming mortgages. But don't look for the bond to be sold in the open market.

The two biggest components of the residential mortgage market – conventional loans below the conforming loan limits and government-insured mortgages – saw measurable declines in new originations in early 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. The conventional-conforming market – nearly all of which is financed through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization – fell to an estimated $333.0 billion during the first quarter of 2013. That was down 5.4 percent from the fourth quarter of last year, but the sector still accounted for a hefty 66.6 percent of total originations during the period. The conventional-conforming market share hasn’t changed...[Includes two data charts]