Default technology provider Commerce Velocity, based in Irvine, CA, recently upgraded its Optimizer solution to help servicer clients achieve the new requirements for Fannie Mae’s Quality Right Party Contact initiative. The original version of Optimizer enabled servicers to maximize cash flows from delinquencies, and enforce workout consistency throughout the default management process. By applying net present value calculations, cash flow projections, valuation models, and comprehensive workout guidelines, the technology provides “the most intelligent outcomes possible,” the company said. The Optimal Outcome module monitors...

A proposal to rid the agency mortgage programs of some of their real estate-owned property through bulk sales has come under fire from Radar Logic, a housing research firm. The company said house prices continued to drop in June, down 4.7 percent from a year ago, and bulk sales of REO properties could hasten the fall. The Obama administration recently launched a fact-finding mission soliciting ideas and opinions about ways to reduce the massive REO inventories held by the FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One solution is bulk sales to investors who would likely turn the houses into rentals. Radar Logic is afraid of possible...

Debt issuance for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks rose during the second quarter of 2011, while Freddie recorded a decline in new debt during the April to June period.The GSEs collectively issued $726.2 billion in new debt during the second quarter, a 2.6 percent increase from the previous quarter, while GSE debt outstanding at $2.168 trillion declined 4.8 percent from the first quarter.

The government will subsidize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac new business to the tune of about $51.0 billion over the next 10 years, according to the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office.CBO’s most recent budget and economic outlook, released in late August, increased its estimate of the subsidy cost for the two GSEs during the period between 2012 to 2021 from the approximate $41.6 billion that the CBO forecast in June.

Several of the prudential management and operations standards recently proposed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency are “duplicative of, or conflict with, current regulatory requirements” and should be further refined before final issuance, according to a comment letter written by the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.The FHLBanks suggest numerous and significant revisions or clarifications to the proposed rule the FHFA issued in June.

In a not unexpected development, PMI Mortgage Insurance has become the second mortgage insurer in less than a month to be suspended by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as an approved GSE mortgage insurer after the company announced state regulators placed PMI under a supervisory order.Mortgages insured by PMI Mortgage Insurance or its affiliates PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. (MIC) and PMI Insurance Co. (PIC) with notes before May 19, 2011, or after Sept. 16, 2011, will no longer be purchased or securitized by Fannie or Freddie, the GSEs announced separately last week.

The junior senator from California is making another public push to overhaul GSE refinance rules — this time by calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to immediately implement parts of her bill that would allow underwater borrowers to refi with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a lower-rate loan.Last week, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, sent FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco a letter urging the Finance Agency to take action on the parts of S.170 that can be implemented administratively.

President Barack Obama and his advisors are scrambling to come up with ways to push the halting U.S. economic recovery forward, including the possibility of a major government mortgage refinance plan to help bolster the housing market. In a recent report, Deutsche Bank analysts said the administration has three options: remove or reduce the loan-level price adjustments that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now charge...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week both “de-listed” PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. as an eligible private MI, a further blow to a private MI business that has been driven to the brink by the housing market collapse. Republic Mortgage Insurance Corp. was forced to stop writing new business this week as North Carolina regulators declined to extend a waiver of risk-capital ratios under which it had remained in the market. Together, PMI and RMIC accounted...

More than 20 percent of counties across the country will be affected by the scheduled decline in the FHA loan limits announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development recently, with the fallout varying from one area to another. Announcing the new loan limits taking effect on Oct. 1, HUD said the change is expected to affect 669 counties, or 20.7 percent of the 3,234 jurisdictions in which FHA insures home loans. Despite dire warnings from mortgage industry groups, HUD estimates that only a fraction of borrowers living in high-cost areas would be impacted by the new loan limits. Last year, only 3 percent of FHA borrowers lived ... [Includes two data charts]