A new “middle ground” legislative proposal that would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a beefed-up Ginnie Mae is getting high marks from industry observers, but lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill have no more appetite for housing finance reform this year. The Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, sponsored by House Democrats John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT), would create a new Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed security for conventional mortgages. It would have the full faith and credit of the federal government while tapping private sector capital to absorb some of the risk. H.R. 5055 has...

"Buying loans from some nonbanks could damage the enterprises' reputations," the FHFA IG says.

Year-to-date MBS issuance by Fannie and Freddie was down 60.9 percent from the first half of 2013.

Morgan Stanley’s regulatory action plan supplements the firm’s global risk-management program for third-party servicers, which is currently in place.

“If the cap is 2.75 percent, it doesn’t leave much, but you have to keep in mind that the lender is building ‘everything else’ into the note rate,” said Marc Savitt.

Several other nonbanks have entered the non-QM space the past few months including Bayview through its Lakeview unit, Impac and others.

Here’s a question to ponder: what does Jamie Dimon like less? Loan brokers or the FHA?

Surprise: most of the growth by nonbanks has been by smaller mortgage bankers.

One California-based mortgage broker had this to say: “All the CFPBs is doing is driving up costs, further confusing the consumer, and wasting even more tax payer dollars.”

Under the terms of the settlement, Citigroup will pay $4.5 billion in cash and provide $2.5 billion in consumer relief.