Some banks may be manipulating prices in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unsecured debt, according to several investigations launched late last week.The Department of Justice has reportedly opened a criminal investigation while the law firm of Hagens Berman is investigating the potential fraud.They suspect that traders from several banks have engaged in a coordinated attempt to manipulate pricing. Hagens Berman attorneys encourage investors and whistleblowers to report any information about potential antitrust violations and other fraud in the bond trading market to a tip line they recently established. This type of fraud has a large impact on market participants, according to Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman.

The agency single-family MBS market did what it was expected to do in May, generating a modest gain in production spurred on by vigor in the purchase-mortgage sector. [Includes two data charts.]

A key Treasury Department official last month said the Federal Housing Finance Agency will remain committed to the single-security initiative no matter who the Trump administration names to take over the regulator of the two government-sponsored enterprises.

Ginnie Mae has restricted three issuers from putting VA mortgages in standard multi-issuer MBS pools as it continues to police the ranks for alleged churning activities.

Industry participants are preparing for a transition away from the London Inter-bank Offered Rate in MBS and ABS but more needs to be done, according to an analysis by Fitch Ratings.

Some of the nation’s largest MBS-investing real estate investment trusts are seeing their share values wither a bit as the summer approaches, but for the most part their fortunes look fairly intact.

An investigation was launched last week into whether banks have been manipulating the prices in the government-sponsored enterprises’ unsecured debt.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency and Morningstar Credit Ratings recently expanded the types of products they will assess with new criteria for Property Assessed Clean Energy ABS and single-asset/single-borrower commercial MBS, respectively.

All three agencies saw gains from April volume with Fannie posting the biggest increase…

Treasury counselor Craig Phillips advised meeting participants to assure their bosses and government affairs offices that Treasury is fully committed to the project. “If you have problems, tell them to call me,” he quipped.