Since late February, Ocwen Financial has struck four different deals to sell $89.4 billion in Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac servicing rights. Although buyer interest in the high-quality receivables was strong, getting those transactions past the Federal Housing Finance Agency has been a different matter. Industry advisors note that in general Fannie and Freddie promise their seller/servicers they will approve MSR transfers within 60 days unless there’s a problem. Last summer, the approval time was increased from 30 days, a change that did not receive much publicity. The FHFA, on the other hand, offers...
The volume of new mortgage originations with primary mortgage-insurance coverage held steady during the first quarter of 2015, but there was a noticeable shift toward the government MI programs, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Private mortgage insurers wrote coverage on $45.24 billion of new conventional originations during the first quarter, a 5.3 percent decline from the fourth quarter of last year. But FHA and Veterans Administration loan originations were up over the same period, by 5.5 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively. Based on Ginnie Mae securitization data, the volume of new rural-housing loans insured by the Department of Agriculture fell...[Includes three data charts]
Stevens also said that while he was FHA commissioner he chose not to go after lenders for violating the False Claims Act because he said such actions would have opened a “Pandora’s Box.”