The Treasury Department increased its threats against non-agency servicers regarding Home Affordable Modification Program performance. In a report released last week, the Treasury was highly critical of JPMorgan Chase and a number of other non-agency servicers remain on notice. Freddie Mac, acting as the Treasury’s compliance agent for the Making Home Affordable program, conducts quarterly assessments of HAMP servicers. In the third quarter of 2011, Chase was deemed to be in need of “substantial improvement” in compliance with MHA guidelines, the third quarter in a row for the servicer ...

Ginnie Mae may have reported potentially inaccurate data to Congress about its exposures because estimates were not based on the best available data, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office. The agency’s sensitivity analysis also ignored important data, which could affect the accuracy of its cash-flow forecasts, the report said. Although Ginnie Mae has revised its cash-flow forecast model, it has not implemented practices identified in Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board guidance and risk-budgeting guidance, the report noted. By ignoring such practices, Ginnie Mae’s model may not be ...

Ginnie Mae recently announced changes to rules implementing provisions under the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act for reimbursing excess mortgage interest to Ginnie Mae issuers. Under the revised SCRA reimbursement policy, issuers will be reimbursed excess interest payments on SCRA mortgage loans based on two different dates for reservists and active members of the military, said Ginnie Mae officials during an issuer outreach webinar on Dec. 8. If the borrower is a reservist, the reimbursement will be based on the date of the receipt of the deployment letter and reimbursements for active members will be based on the deployment date. Under the SCRA, mortgage lenders are required to ...

Total FHA endorsements declined 4.2 percent in October from the previous month and 29.7 percent from a year ago even as FHA refinances continued to slow, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA data. A total of 88,060 mortgages were endorsed for FHA insurance in October, down from 91,963 loans in September. Of the October endorsements, 60,596 were purchase loans, down 9.0 percent from the previous month and 7.9 percent from the same reporting period last year. FHA refinancing increased 15.4 percent on a month-to-month basis but declined a whopping 57.9 percent from last year. Streamlined FHA refis were ... (Comes with one chart)

Republican lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill are pushing harder for secondary mortgage market reform legislation as the first session of the 112th Congress moves toward a holiday break. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and the Government Sponsored Enterprises this week approved legislation aimed at boosting the non-agency mortgage securities market by creating an extensive federal regulatory framework. The bill, approved on a party line vote, does not address the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, nor does it provide for any federal backing for...

The Inspector General assigned to watch the Federal Housing Finance Agency is “actively investigating” possible fraud in mortgage securitization, loan origination, servicing and loss mitigation activities, the IG said during a hearing in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee this week. FHFA Inspector General Steve Linick reiterated observations in his organization’s semiannual report released last week that the FHFA sometimes shows “undue deference” to the government-sponsored enterprises and has not always been as proactive in its oversight as it should have...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the City of Chicago this week to keep it from enforcing its recently amended “Vacant Buildings Ordinance” against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The move may provide servicers a way to fight the ordinance without bringing upon themselves any enforcement action from the city while the litigation is pending, according to some observers. “The City of Chicago is interfering unlawfully with FHFA’s federally mandated oversight and exercise of discretion, as conservator...

The volume of home mortgage debt outstanding sank to a five-year low as of the end of third quarter of 2011, according to new data released by the Federal Reserve. The agency reported that the outstanding volume of single-family mortgage debt fell 0.6 percent during the third quarter, dropping to $10.336 trillion. That marked the 15th consecutive quarterly decline and the lowest level since the third quarter of 2006. The only component in the servicing market that’s showing much growth is the Ginnie Mae program, where the outstanding balance of...(Includes two data charts)

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)

Industry experts and trade groups said this week they were generally supportive of a House Republican bill to create a new non-agency residential MBS market, but they still want the government to have a role, however limited, in the final product. The Private Mortgage Market Investment Act, drafted but not yet filed by Rep. Scott Garrett, R-NJ, would create a heavily regulated MBS market made up solely of private entities that would function with no federal guarantee at all. Garrett, who chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government...