The Prestwick Group and MIAC are also working on servicing deals.

Regarding Altisource Portfolio Solutions, Sterne Agee noted: “It is difficult to be optimistic from here"...

The CFPB put out a bulletin last week advising lenders not to create illegal hurdles for recipients of Social Security Disability Income who apply for mortgages, warning that requiring unnecessary documentation from such consumers could raise fair lending risk. The new bulletin discusses standards and guidelines on verification of SSDI, including those under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s standards for FHA loans, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ standards for VA-guaranteed loans, and guidelines from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bureau begins by noting that to verify income for qualified mortgage debt-to-income ratios under the ability-to-repay rule, lenders are required to look at whether the Social Security Administration benefit verification letter or equivalent document ...

An unspecified number of counties would have been assigned lower loan limits, based on house price trends, but the FHFA weighed “other factors” and left them unchanged.

The biggest gain in bank MBS investment during the third quarter was in non-agency securities.

The increase in g-fees last year made all three loan-purpose categories more profitable.

Banks and thrifts held a combined $1.535 trillion of residential MBS at the end of September, a modest 0.6 percent increase from the previous quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of bank call reports. Bank MBS holdings had spiked higher in the first quarter of this year, only to fall back in the following period. Compared to a year ago, the industry’s aggregate MBS portfolio was up 1.4 percent. Bank and thrift MBS holdings first crossed...[Includes two data charts]

Average MBS guaranty fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jumped from 36 basis points in 2012 to 51 bps last year, according to an annual study by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that was released late this week. But the impact of the fee hikes was not spread uniformly across the government-sponsored enterprises’ business. The report shows that the estimated average g-fee on purchase mortgages climbed from 40 bps in 2012 to 55 bps last year. The average fee for refinances rose slightly less, by 14 bps, for both rate-term deals (48 bps in 2013) and cash-out refinances (53 bps last year). According to the FHFA study sample, the purchase business rose...

The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency told Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee members this week that a decision on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranty fees will come soon after the New Year. In his first oversight hearing since taking the reins of the agency in January, FHFA Director Mel Watt stated during questioning that the regulator of the government-sponsored enterprises will make its move on g-fees during the first quarter of 2015. In one of his first acts as FHFA director, Watt postponed...

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced this week that it selected three firms to participate in a pilot project to expand agency MBS sellers beyond the large primary dealers that work with the NY Fed. The pilot will last for about one year and the firms will participate as counterparties on the Open Market Trading Desk along with primary dealers in the Desk’s agency MBS operations. Brean Capital, Loop Capital Markets and Mischler Financial Group were selected to participate in the Mortgage Operations Counterparty Pilot Program, which was announced in August. The NY Fed didn’t disclose the number of firms that applied for the pilot but noted that the intent was always to work with a small number of firms to speed the pilot and keep costs low for the NY Fed. The pilot program participants are set...