Reven Housing Funding, La Jolla, CA, has closed on a $51.3 million mortgage from Arbor Agency Lending, a Freddie Mac-approved seller/servicer, according to a recent 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Freddie, said one GSE official, is the takeout commitment behind the Arbor loan.

Pilot programs implemented by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over recent years will be the focus of a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing next week. As complaints mount about the process in which a number of pilots were introduced and their threat to the primary market, the Senate decided to tackle the issue during the Oct. 18 “Oversight of Pilot Programs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac” hearing.

A recent court ruling that affirmed the validity of claims that the GSE net worth sweep breached an implied covenant of good faith is a big deal for shareholders, according to the plaintiff’s attorney.David Thompson of Cooper and Kirk told Inside The GSEs this week that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth’s decision is a “significant victory” for the plaintiffs.

Seasonal housing-market factors pushed GSE single-family mortgage business higher in the third quarter, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis of mortgage-backed securities data.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $213.81 billion of single-family MBS in the third quarter, a 10.4 percent increase from the previous period. The gain came from a 23.4 percent surge in purchase-mortgage business, which offset a 15.5 percent downturn in GSE refi activity. [Includes two data charts.]

JPM and Wells do not use loan brokers, avoiding the wholesale channel. Both have large warehouse lending programs and acquire mortgages from the nonbanks they also finance.

The highlight of the third quarter was the steady growth of the nonprime market…

The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently issued new guidance requiring Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Home Loan Banks to have firm policies in place to manage the risks posed by changing interest rates. The regulator cautioned that excessive interest rate risk can threaten liquidity, earnings, capital and solvency.

Habib told IMFnews that if yield on the benchmark breaks 3.25 percent it could quickly shoot up to 3.63 percent…

On a year-to-date basis, the volume of private MI loans delivered into GSE MBS was up 9.8 percent from the first nine months of 2017…

HSBC will pay $765 million to settle charges brought by the Department of Justice...