Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generated a combined $4.86 billion in net income during the second quarter of 2017, down a modest 2.4 percent from the first three months of the year, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of earnings reports released this week. The two government-sponsored enterprises have racked up $9.85 billion in net income through the first six months of the year, more than double their combined earnings for the same period in 2016. In the first quarter of last year, interest rate volatility yielded significant accounting losses on their hedges, which suppressed net income at Fannie and produced a net loss at Freddie. Freddie officials said...

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau prepares to begin assessing its ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, national representatives of the mortgage industry and other financial services participants this week urged the regulator to deal with what’s known as the “GSE patch.” The patch provides a temporary safe harbor for mortgages eligible to be sold to the government-sponsored enterprises that have debt-to-income ratios that exceed 43 percent, the maximum allowed under the ATR rule. The Housing Policy Council of the Financial Services Roundtable noted...

Housing finance groups are concerned that the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s idea to better serve borrowers with limited proficiency in English by adding a language preference question to loan applications could create a host of legal challenges and systemic risks. A year ago, the FHFA decided to defer a plan to include a question about a borrower’s language preference on the uniform residential loan application, and gather more input instead. The agency specifically asked for information on potential short-term and long-term improvements to help borrowers not fluent in English better understand the mortgage process. And from the looks of the comments, it appears...

Bank of America reported $230.0 million in combined second-quarter mortgage-banking income, a hefty 88.5 percent increase from the previous period.

Watt noted that, “Some lenders are finally showing more willingness to extend credit to borrowers who meet the broader credit criteria reflected in the enterprises’ credit boxes…”

Cowen & Co. analyst Jaret Seiberg believes the Senate Banking Committee remains on track to unveil GSE reform legislation late in the fourth quarter...

In past SEC filings Radian hinted that a write-down tied to its 2014 $305 million purchase of Clayton might be in order, but the company never pulled the trigger.

Freddie expects to make a $2 billion dividend payment to Treasury – the holder of its senior preferred stock – sometime in September.

Freddie Mac CEO Don Layton: "The fundamentals are strong and residual flaws are gone..."

The noted research firm found that mortgage customers feel as if their servicers are more focused on profit than giving top-notch customer support...