The National Association of Realtors this week asked the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower the MBS guarantee fees charged by the two government-sponsored enterprises, citing lower corporate tax rates ushered in under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Freddie Mac is offering a new cash benefit to sellers of loans that fall in a narrow band of loan sizes that typically are used for specified MBS pools. The new category targeted for cash deliveries are 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with loan amounts ranging from $175,000 to $200,000.

Departing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen quietly rode off into the sunset this week, with the Fed’s Open Market Committee deciding to keep interest rates unchanged, as expected. The fed funds target range remains at 1.25 percent to 1.50 percent.

Data initiatives meant to streamline technological innovations and provide better information are actually giving mortgage lenders a hard time. A new report by Fannie Mae showed that 74 percent of lenders agree that attempts to standardize data are needed, but many run into challenges in implementation.

Ginnie Mae is planning to make enhancements to its disclosure offerings in 2018 and 2019 to benefit MBS issuers and investors.

Fannie and Freddie issued just $2.01 billion of structured credit notes during the fourth quarter, a sharp 44.5 percent drop from the previous period…

The NAR request comes at a time of rising interest rates…

Bill Maloni, a retired Fannie executive who’s been tracking the reform debate for years, believes the Corker bill, if enacted as is, eventually will place the secondary market in the hands of the megabanks.

Calabria is a former director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank that would like to do away Fannie and Freddie…

Ginnie Mae late last week cautioned servicers in its single-family mortgage-backed securities program to pay more attention to “acceptable risk parameters” that could affect their participation in the program.