The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week detailed its efforts to make sure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policies and practices are consistent enough to keep prepayments speeds on their to-be-announced securities essentially the same. Prepay speeds for the two government-sponsored enterprises have moved significantly closer as more of their products and program requirements have been standardized, the FHFA said in an update on its single security initiative. Keeping them that way is seen as critical to the success of the program, in which Fannie and Freddie TBA MBS will be fully fungible – and can even be combined in so-called second-tier securitizations. Some industry interests have urged...
Recently, rumors were making the rounds in Washington that Fannie and Freddie might be pondering an increase in their net worth minimums for seller/servicers...
Mortgage lenders delivered a hefty $218.29 billion of single-family mortgages into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of MBS disclosures made by the two government-sponsored enterprises. That was an increase of $45.32 billion over the first quarter, and 30.2 percent of the gain came from California, where total GSE loan sales jumped ... [Includes two data charts]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both saw substantial increases in single-family volume during the second quarter, aided in part by nonbank sellers scouring for refinance business. But Fannie enjoyed bigger gains, while Freddie’s share of the two-horse GSE market slipped to 39.5 percent. Freddie’s share has hovered above 40 percent for the past two years, and it was 40.2 percent for the first six months of the year, but the GSE has to prop up its share by charging lower guarantee fees and through other means. In 2016, Freddie has been getting a smaller share of some sellers’ business than it got in the first half of last year. [includes two data charts]
Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, wrote Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt urging him to avoid taking steps that would lead to the GSEs’ release from conservatorship without comprehensive reform. The letter, sent on July 7, argued that doing so would perpetuate the pre-crisis practice of pubic losses and private gains. Senator Mike Crapo, R-ID, Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND, Dean Heller R-NV, and Jon Tester, D-MT, also coauthored the letter. They agree that an overall change to the existing structure needs to take place, but warned that it should only come through housing finance reform legislation and not any unilateral action by the administration.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency released an updated timeline, along with more technical details, on its single-security and common securitization platform late this week. It plans to announce the intended launch date for the single security later this year. This will give stakeholders at least 12 months' advance notice to prepare for implementation. While the project seems to be on track, the FHFA noted that some of the interim milestones could change due to the complicated undertaking. “Many of the milestones pertain to three types of system testing that the enterprises and Common Securitization Solutions must complete before implementation of each release,” according to the FHFA.
In a rare decision, the U.S. Supreme Court last week agreed to hear oral arguments pertaining to an ongoing Fannie Mae foreclosure case dating back to 2002. The case, Crystal Monique Lightfoot v. Fannie Mae, Cendant Mortgage Corp., is based on whether individual homeowners have the right to sue the GSE in the state courts after being wrongly foreclosed on by Fannie. Two homeowners from California involved in a mortgage dispute originally sued Fannie in state court back in 2002. But Fannie said the case should automatically fall under federal jurisdiction and be moved to the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have sold 41,649 nonperforming loans through May 2016, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s inaugural report on nonperforming loan sales and borrower outcomes. The report, released last week, is the first of two reports the FHFA plans to publish each year highlighting NPL sales activities. The loans had an aggregate unpaid principal balance of $8.5 billion and were delinquent 3.4 years on average. Freddie led the NPL sales market for the GSEs having sold 26,436 delinquent loans. Fannie was a distant second at 15,213. The average loan-to-value ratio was 98 percent. LSF9 Mortgage Holdings and Pretium Mortgage Credit Partners were the top...
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