There are a slew of metrics that go into the calculation of performance incentives for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their top executives. Some of them – like hitting softball market share targets when the only competition is Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac – seem hard to miss. For 2010, one of Fannie’s performance goals was to achieve a 33 percent share of new single-family mortgage-backed securities issuance. The company actually attained a 44 percent share of MBS issuance last year, which helped Fannie’s top executives earn 89 percent to 99 percent of their maximum long-term...

Agency residential MBS issuance in November rose to its busiest level since the start of 2011, but seasonal slowdowns in housing activity and a refinance boom that’s losing steam suggest that the current wave is at or near its peak. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae generated a total of $114.53 billion in new single-family MBS during November. That was up 11.2 percent from October volume and marked the highest monthly production level since January 2011, when the agencies issued $137.76 billion. But consumer demand for refinance loans has been...(Includes two data charts)

Debt issuance for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks all recorded increases in new debt issuance during the third quarter of 2011.The three GSEs collectively issued $797.7 billion in new debt issue during the third quarter, a 9.8 percent increase from the previous quarter, while GSE debt outstanding at $2.152 trillion declined 4.8 percent from the second quarter.

Just in time for the holidays, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each announced last week that all foreclosure-related evictions from occupied single-family and two-to-four unit properties with Fannie or Freddie mortgages will be suspended from Dec. 19, 2011 to Jan. 2, 2012.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be put into “irrevocable receivership” with the Federal Housing Finance Agency tasked as their receiver no later than 18 months after enactment of a bill introduced in the Senate this week.Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA, introduced the Mortgage Finance Act of 2011 to “get the American taxpayer out of the business of bailing out the mortgage industry.” The bill would wind down Fannie and Freddie while creating a new regulatory framework for “high-quality” mortgage securitization for both single-family and multifamily mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency needs to be much more hands-on and engaged in its oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Finance Agency’s official watchdog.The FHFA Office of Inspector General’s conclusion is not new, but the OIG doubled down on its criticism of the agency last week both in its Semiannual Report to Congress and in written testimony submitted to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

The CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac told lawmakers last week they have been working to manage all expenses prudently at the taxpayer-subsidized government-sponsored enterprises even as they sought to explain away reports that the two GSEs ran up a six-figure bill attending an industry convention in Chicago in October.Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Fannie CEO Michael Williams and Freddie CEO Charles Haldeman noted the GSEs’ importance in the current and future mortgage markets even as they cited their efforts to reduce overall expenses through money-saving cuts and improvements in operational efficiency over the last three years.

A proposed radical shift in how lenders are paid for servicing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages would make the business less feasible and skew the competitive landscape even more than it is, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In a comment letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the MBA said the regulator and the two government-sponsored enterprises ought to shelve their controversial plan to reform servicing compensation. The FHFA and the GSEs have focused on two alternatives: a fee-for-service model favored by the agencies, and an industry proposal to reduce the...

Jumbo lenders do not expect the higher FHA loan limits to have any adverse impact on their GSE business. Anyone seeking a loan above $625,500 only has one choice, and that is FHA, but the real question is how much business the conventional market would lose to FHA, lenders said. In addition to the higher loan limit, the FHA insures loans of more than 80 percent loan-to-value ratio and requires a 3.5 percent downpayment. The GSEs require a 20 percent downpayment on their jumbos. On the other hand, the private market offers loans above the GSE limits but does not originate loans in excess of 80 percent LTV. “For people seeking under-80 LTV loans, it is unlikely that ... [Includes one data chart]

The decision to restore “emergency” high-cost loan limits for the FHA, but not for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will likely have a negligible impact on the government-sponsored enterprises, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of agency jumbo mortgage activity. During the first nine months of 2011, single-family loans exceeding $625,500 – the top GSE loan amount for high-cost markets since Oct. 1 – accounted for an infinitesimal 1.5 percent of Freddie Mac’s total single-family securitization. Although the FHA can resume insuring...(Includes three data charts)