One question we occasionally hear is this one: If the GOP this fall gains control of the Senate can’t they just push through a GSE reform bill and hope to override a presidential veto, if there is one?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $61.1 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the month of August, a 5.5 percent increase from the previous month, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. However, MBS issuance through the first eight months of 2014 was down 56.7 percent from the same period a year ago Top-ranked Wells Fargo’s Fannie and Freddie securitization, at $8.2 billion, rose by 3.1 percent on a monthly basis but dropped 70.0 percent year-to-date.

Mortgage lenders securitized $90.95 billion of single-family MBS through the GSEs and Ginnie Mae during August – the biggest monthly volume since September 2013, according to IM&A.

New production of agency single-family MBS increased by 6.6 percent from July to August as the midyear home-buying season continued to generate a healthy supply of new primary market originations, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Mortgage lenders last month pushed a total of $90.95 billion of single-family MBS through the securitization programs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. It was the biggest monthly volume since September 2013, but August issuance was boosted by an unusually large volume of seasoned loans that also helped tilt the competitive landscape. Freddie saw...[Includes two data charts]

Commercial banks held $1.386 trillion of residential MBS at the end of June, marking their second consecutive quarterly gain in MBS investment, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. The 0.7 percent increase in bank MBS holdings was enough to offset a 3.5 percent drop in thrift investment in the sector. On a combined basis, banks and thrifts saw an 0.3 percent increase in residential MBS during the second quarter, though the industry remained 0.2 percent below the level set at the midway point in 2013. All of the increase came...[Includes two data charts]

Ever since the housing bust, mortgage bankers have coveted the Ginnie Mae “eagle,” which allows them to issue and service the agency’s MBS, but the pipeline of new applications is slowing. According to figures provided to Inside MBS & ABS, the agency had received 78 new applications through the end of July compared to 89 in fiscal 2013 and 99 the prior year. In an interview with this newsletter, Ginnie President Ted Tozer acknowledged the decline in applications, but didn’t seem all that concerned, adding: “I think we received a bunch recently.” In other words, applications could wind up...

Does JPM's Jamie Dimon really care about the mortgage business? Or is he in it for the CRA credits?

When lawmakers return from their five-week August recess next week, House and Senate members will face a lengthy agenda with just a short period of time to get it done. Conspicuously absent from the Congressional to-do list is housing finance reform. With approximately 12 scheduled legislative days before the Nov. 4 midterm elections, industry observers note that lawmakers won’t get to some things until they return for the lame duck session, while other bills will fade away as the clock runs out.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s proposed tightening of rules for private mortgage insurers that do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a “thoughtful effort,” but “modest changes” are required, conclude a trio of economists in a paper issued last week. Moody’s Analytics’ Mark Zandi and Chris deRitis and the Urban Institute’s Jim Parrott said that the FHFA’s Private Mortgage Insurance Eligibility Requirements “should succeed” in ensuring that private MI are strong counterparties to the GSEs, while serving as “a much improved bulwark against excessive risk” in the system.

Although Freddie Mac’s official watchdog found the GSE’s review process of servicer reimbursement claims to be “generally effective,” some tens of millions of dollars could be saved by scrutinizing servicer payments for costs incurred on loan defaults. According to an audit issued last week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Inspector General, Freddie reimbursed 460 of its servicers $1.4 billion in 2013 but identified and denied $126 million in what the IG calls “erroneous” claims. The IG noted that Freddie’s top 10 servicers, relative to total reimbursements, accounted for 87 percent of all reimbursements made by Freddie in 2013.