The Supreme Court of the United States ruled last week that Fannie Mae does not have the right to automatically transfer a case from state court to federal court under the “sue-and-be-sued” clause. In the ruling from the Lightfoot v. Cendant Mortgage Corp. case, the court rejected an argument stating that the GSE’s federal charter creates federal jurisdiction. The case was argued in November. The ruling by Justice Sonia Sotomayor reversed an earlier Ninth Circuit Court decision which stated that Fannie’s sue-and-be-sued clause in the charter enabled it to transfer state-filed lawsuits against it to federal court. But that’s not the case anymore. “Fannie Mae’s sue-and-be-sued clause is most naturally read not to grant...

With the Trump administration now officially in office, GSE shareholders are optimistic about their cases against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being resolved. Investors Unite hosted a call last week during which legal experts weighed in on the outlook for GSE shareholder cases. Plaintiffs have been arguing that a government bailout of the GSEs and the subsequent Treasury sweep were unnecessary and illegal. John Yoo, Heller Professor of Law at the University of California Berkley School of Law, said he thinks the election makes a big difference because it gives an incoming president the opportunity to review the constitutional claims of the last president and decide whether to change them.

Marking one of the first major GSE changes of the new year, Fannie Mae’s new investor reporting requirement goes into effect next week on Feb. 1. Fannie said that servicers must use the updated transaction types and formats when reporting loan activity for the February 2017 reporting period. To minimize challenges during the transition, Fannie announced a temporary moratorium on post-delivery servicing transfers with effective dates from Feb.1, 2017, through March 31, 2017. …

Fun fact: Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie accounted for 95.6 percent of multifamily mortgages securitized in 2016…

Agency mortgage servicers last year transferred some $369.44 billion of mortgage-servicing rights tied to mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, according to an exclusive new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Thanks to an end-of-year surge, bulk MSR transactions accounted for most of the market. During the fourth quarter, some $76.69 billion of servicing changed hands in bulk transfers, a 76.5 percent jump from ... [Includes three data charts]

Fannie Prices $1.351B CAS Deal. Fannie Mae priced its first credit risk-sharing transaction of 2017 last week, under its Connecticut Avenue Securities program. CAS Series 2017-C01, a $1.351 billion note offering, was scheduled to settle on Jan. 26, 2017.  Laurel Davis, vice president of credit risk transfer, said “We saw an overwhelmingly positive response to our first deal of the year from a broad range of investors.” …

To be sure, individual lenders were all over the map in their reported production trends. A handful of top producers reported significant increases from the third quarter, including loanDepot, which was up 13.4 percent…

Total revenues at Clayton, its mortgage and real estate services division, increased by 10 percent to $52.6 million.

Hedge fund manager Pershing Square Capital Management is facing a bit of a dilemma in regard to its huge investment in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac common stock: take profits off the table now – while it still can – or go for broke, hoping for a huge payout later on. At last check, Pershing – the brainchild of veteran investor Bill Ackman – owned roughly 9.98 percent of Fannie and 9.77 percent of Freddie. It accumulated the shares earlier in the decade at an average price of $2.30 for Fannie and $2.14 for Freddie. Today, Fannie’s common trades...

Prospects for a relatively speedy administrative solution to the eight-year-old conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appeared to dim after Treasury Secretary-nominee Steve Mnuchin backtracked from earlier comments on swiftly addressing the plight of the two government-sponsored enterprises. During a Jan. 19 Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, asked Mnuchin if he supports a recapitalization-and-release plan for the GSEs, as several industry groups have proposed. “First, let’s be clear,” Mnuchin said. “My comments were...