The housing finance reform legislation authored by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, will result in higher guaranty fees and less cross-subsidization than the current Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fee structure, according to the government-sponsored enterprises. The Johnson-Crapo bill, which was abruptly pulled from a scheduled markup before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee this week, would establish a new type of MBS with an explicit government backstop that requires private capital to absorb the first 10 percent of losses. “There is...

Ginnie Mae issuer applications are beginning to slow thanks to declining FHA and VA production, but lenders that play in the space are beginning to wonder whether they should be paying closer attention to the “compare ratios” that measure delinquencies. According to industry advisors, there are new concerns that the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development may be expanding its investigation of firms that have significant claims rates on FHA loans. Four years ago, the HUD IG made a big splash when it issued subpoenas to 15 mortgage lenders with unusually high claim rates. Since that announcement, little information on settlements with the 15 has come...

Concerns about the functionality of the to-be-announced market and potential incentives for riskier lending have prompted some to suggest that legislation under consideration in the Senate to reform the government-sponsored enterprises should remove the capital markets option for risk sharing and rely solely on a guarantor model. A number of agency MBS participants aren’t too pleased with the suggestions and have countered that a capital markets option is necessary in the country’s housing finance system. Under the capital markets option envisioned in the GSE reform bill from Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, investors would hold...

Johnson-Crapo requires 12 percent mortgage insurance if the LTV exceeds 80 percent but is no more than 85 percent; 25 percent MI if the LTV exceeds 85 percent but no more than 90 percent; and 30 percent MI if the LTV exceeds 90 percent.

Charge-offs in the credit-card ABS sector reached a new low in the first quarter of 2014, due mostly to a steady decline in delinquencies and lower bankruptcy rates, according to Fitch Ratings. Loss rates continued to break new records heading into 1Q14, falling to 2.89 percent during the latest March distribution period, even as average charge-offs dropped to a record 3.00 percent for 1Q14 from 3.04 percent in 4Q13. “This marks 15 consecutive quarters of improvement and is approximately 25 percent lower year-over-year,” said Fitch Ratings Credit Card ABS Group Managing Director Michael Dean and Director Herman Poon in a new report. Late payments also fell...

Several big banks are in various phases of negotiation with the federal government to resolve alleged violations of federal and state securities laws in connection with legacy non-agency MBS. Bank of America is in new settlement talks with the Department of Justice over residential MBS backed mostly by faulty loans stemming from BofA’s acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch & Co., which securitized the loans and sold the bonds to investors. The tentative talks could cost...

Did someone in the mortgage industry actually ask one of the GSEs recently to increase the 25 basis point servicing fee that it pays to residential servicers?

Building on the success of its previously issued Structured Agency Credit Risk debt notes, expect Freddie Mac to continue to crank out additional risk-sharing deals, while the GSE pursues reinsurance opportunities to further mitigate risk, say company officials and industry observers. Last week, Freddie announced it has reduced taxpayer exposure by obtaining insurance policies for a combined maximum of $269.5 million of losses to a portion of the credit risk associated with a pool of single-family loans funded in the first quarter of 2013. The GSE said the policies were underwritten by a group of well-capitalized and well-established insurers and reinsurers and were obtained under Freddie’s Agency Credit Insurance Structure, which has attracted private capital from non-mortgage guaranty insurers and reinsurers.

Freddie Mac Multifamily now will purchase from its Targeted Affordable Housing lender network multifamily tax-exempt loans, and aggregate and securitize them into a new series called M-Deals, the GSE announced last week. The move is in concert with the firm’s launch of a new initiative – the Direct Purchase of Tax-Exempt Loans – to help keep rental housing affordable for lower income families and increase cost-effective financing for tax-exempt multifamily properties. Freddie explained these are tax-exempt loans issued by a city, county or state housing finance entity for apartments that have affordable rents for lower income individuals.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $45.4 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the month of April, a 20.6 percent increase from March, reversing more than a year-long streak of declines, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis. However, April’s MBS issuance was down 63.0 percent from the same period a year ago.Top-ranked Wells Fargo’s Fannie and Freddie securitization, at $6.28 billion, rose by 23.1 percent on a monthly basis but dropped 73.3 percent year-to-date.