The Treasury Department reneged on its support of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s single- director structure last week. The issue stems from a recent PHH Mortgage-initiated lawsuit challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure as unconstitutional, which led to questioning the similarly structured FHFA. Although the Treasury previously sided with the FHFA, the Trump administration decided to side with the mortgage lender. The Treasury Department is now making a similar argument that the FHFA’s structure is also unconstitutional. The CFPB and FHFA, the GSEs’ regulator, are independent agencies led by a single director whom the president can only fire for cause.

Freddie Mac’s vice president of single-family business transformation is one of five industry innovators honored by the Mortgage Bankers Association with an MBA Insights Tech All-Star Award recognizing industry leaders who have made outstanding contributions in mortgage technology.

Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie securitized $156.80 billion of refi loans during 1Q17, down 35.1 percent sequentially, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac forked over most of their fourth-quarter earnings to the Treasury Department at the end of March, as scheduled. But some industry insiders wonder whether the timing of future payments will be altered to reduce the likelihood that either of the government-sponsored enterprises might need another bailout. In early March, there were talks predicting, or hoping for everything from a possible suspension of the Treasury sweep to replacing the quarterly payment with an annual one. Speculation may have been fueled by uncertainty about what the Trump administration wants to do about the now eight-year-old conservatorships of the two GSEs. In 2017, Fannie and Freddie can only retain...

Fink is expected to leave Fannie Mae in the second half of the year.

Wells Fargo’s legal woes are continuing after a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week ordered the company to face several lawsuits by institutional investors alleging MBS fraud. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that Wells Fargo must face five lawsuits by a few dozen funds that are holding the bank liable for losses incurred after the MBS they purchased lost value due to the financial crisis. The plaintiffs include...

One GSE watcher called it, "The biggest company quarterly profit since the Roman Empire, adjusted for inflation of course.”

Single-family business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell sharply in the first quarter of 2017 and the wholesale-broker channel bore much of the brunt of the decline. The two government-sponsored enterprises issued $218.2 billion in new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter, a 27.1 percent drop from the final three months of 2016. But a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals that the supply of mortgages originated ... [Includes two data charts]

GSE originators have long complained that the rep-and-warrant policies need to be more transparent.

How much slack can the purchase market pick up? We’re about to find out…