MBS guaranty fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not have to increase by much from current levels to shift risk to the private sector, according to a new analysis by Andrew Davidson & Co. However, if policymakers looking to reduce the market share of the government-sponsored enterprises want to expand credit availability beyond the tight standards in the GSE market, g-fees will have to increase significantly. Fannie Mae reported that the average effective g-fee in its third quarter 2012 business was 41.8 basis points, and the GSEs raised their fees by 10 bps during the fourth quarter of last year. A report this week from the Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission proposed...

With upwards of $15 billion in nonperforming mortgages expected to be sold at auction this year – and with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac entering the market – securitizations of these problem loans could take off during the next few quarters. To date, there has been little information about nonperforming securitizations, though a handful of private deals have been issued over the past 18 months, market sources told Inside MBS & ABS. “Deals are getting done...

Adherents of a global tax proposal that would help countries raise revenue and make the financial sector pay for its fair share of crisis costs are calling on the U.S. for support. But first, the U.S. must overcome its fear of the “financial transaction tax,” or FTT, before this controversial tax option can be adopted globally, according to panelists in a forum hosted this week by the Center for American Progress. The CAP believes the tax is a “smart policy tool” that is both a revenue raiser and a stabilizer of volatile financial markets. The FTT is...

The Federal Reserve is open to the idea of making the "qualified residential mortgage" definition in the pending risk-retention rule the same as that of the "qualified mortgage" standard.

Wells Fargo says it is committed to its remaining joint venture lending partners but isn't giving out any names on the JVs.

According to a new analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, REIT MBS investors as a group increased their MBS holdings by 47.4 percent in 2012.

The mortgage industry wants the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to clarify whether mortgages subject to repurchase demands will lose their “qualified mortgage” status under the bureau’s new ability-to-repay rule.

Milestone Advisors has picked a winning bidder for the MSR portfolio once owned by Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

Mortgage bankers are promising to wage war over any new guaranty fee hikes that are used for non-residential projects.

The GSEs continued to wrangle with seller/servicers over repurchase requests during the fourth quarter of 2012, but mostly over loans originated five years earlier.