Two pending mortgage lawsuits involving the Federal Housing Finance Agency, spawned by the housing crisis, have been winding down in recent weeks. One includes a win for Bank of America and the other includes oral arguments in an appeal by Nomura Holdings and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Department of Justice had until Nov. 21 to appeal an earlier ruling in which BofA, defending practices of Countrywide Financial, got out of having to pay more than $1 billion in penalties to the FHFA. Instead of appealing to the Supreme Court, the DOJ quietly let the deadline slip away. In 2014, a federal judge ordered the bank to pay $1.2 billion in civil penalties.

DU Day 1 Certainty Begins. On Dec.10 components of Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty initiative become effective. Day 1, announced in October, gives customers freedom from representation and warranties on key aspects of the mortgage origination process through Fannie’s Desktop Underwriter platform. Asset and employment validation as well as Collateral Underwriter freedom from reps and warrants for appraisals begins Dec. 10. Fannie Prices Latest CAS CRT Deal. Last week, Fannie Mae priced its latest credit risk sharing transaction under its Connecticut Avenue Securities program. CAS Series 2016-C07, a $701.7 million note offering, was scheduled to settle on Dec. 8, 2016.

Have any of the GSE stock speculators that bought on the cheap cashed out of their gains?

The average loan-to-value ratio for the securitized FHA and VA loans were 92.3 percent and 94.6 percent, respectively.

First the good news: origination profits were strong in 3Q16. Now the bad: the recent rate rise is going to hurt.

The third quarter saw a sharp increase in refinance originations that appeared to give a bigger boost to government and conventional-conforming production than the jumbo market got.

Despite the uptick in rates, warehouse providers appear to be happy (for now) and, like their nonbank clients, most expect the competition to suffer and not them.

Of the $292.98 billion in non-agency jumbo mortgages originated in 2015, 3.1 percent were in areas where the loan balance would have been eligible for delivery to the GSEs under the loan limits set to take effect in January.

Fannie Mae added: “Through these actions we have demonstrated our continued dedication to providing quality care to all communities. And we remain firmly committed to continuing to provide such attention to our REO properties moving forward.”

We know one mortgage official who bought “a bunch” of Fannie Mae shares at $1.38...