Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have implemented a new appraisal sharing feature in the Uniform Collateral Data Portal to help correspondent lenders. When it launches Feb. 7, correspondent lenders will be able to share appraisal information with their aggregators within the portal so they can get real-time results for their correspondents’ appraisals. The GSEs said this ensures that they will have the most up-to-date appraisal information when selling a loan to aggregators.The correspondent will be able to share individual appraisals with specific aggregators and delve into more details when they retrieve the appraisal. The aggregator can access the status, funding and submission summary report for the correspondent-shared appraisals.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “unquestionably qualify” as systemically important financial institutions, according to the American Enterprise Institute. In a recent letter, AEI’s Alex Pollock and Thomas Stanton wrote that while the Financial Stability Oversight Council designated three nonbanks as SIFIs, it failed to do so for Fannie and Freddie. They argue that the GSEs qualify under both the statutory and FSOC definitions, and under any “objective assessment of their financial importance.” The AEI wants to make sure that the protective capital and regulatory standards applying to SIFIs can be applied to Fannie and Freddie. “Indeed, the failure of the GSEs revealed only some of the problems caused by lack of accurate information (and consequent pricing) with...

After the Federal Housing Finance Agency filed a motion in November to dismiss a case introduced by two GSE shareholders over the summer, the shareholders have opposed the motion to dismiss and are demanding a jury trial. The original complaint stated that with Fannie chartered under Delaware law and Freddie under Virginia’s jurisdiction, the preferred stock of a corporation cannot be given a cumulative dividend right equal to all the net worth of the corporation “in perpetuity.” In a nutshell, shareholders David Jacobs and Gary Hindes argue that the net worth sweep in which Treasury takes the bulk of the GSEs’ profits is illegal under state law.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress want to know what it will take to expand real estate investment trust participation in GSE credit risk transfers. They wrote the Securities and Exchange Commission last week asking it to help alleviate the regulatory challenges REITs face when it comes to participating in credit risk transfers. “Specifically, we are requesting your expertise in unlocking a meaningful amount of capital in the form of mortgage real estate investment trusts to participate in these transactions,” said the letter from the 13 congressman.They cited the FHFA’s goal to grow the credit risk-sharing program with an expanded investor base and said that mortgage REITs would be a likely candidate if the obstacles were removed.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been targeting a portion of their nonperforming loans to nonprofit organizations, but reaching those groups can be a challenge. So far, each has sold one pool to two different nonprofit groups in New Jersey. Freddie Mac announced its very first NPL sale to a nonprofit buyer back in late December. It sold $18.4 million in loans to the Community Loan Fund of New Jersey, a non-profit, private and minority and women-owned business. There were 103 loans in the Florida-based pool with an average balance of $178,300 and they were about 33 months delinquent on average. The transaction is expected to settle in February.

FHFA FHLB Classification Guidance. The Federal Housing Finance Agency put out guidance this week on the classification of investment securities at the Federal Home Loan Banks. It is adopting the 2013 Uniform Agreement for FHLBank supervisory purposes. Where FHFA’s rule and guidance and the 2013 Uniform Agreement may conflict, the FHFA said its rules and guidance will apply. The agreement included FHLBanks using sound and conservative assumptions as they pertain to upgrades and it provides classification approach examples that provide boundaries for upgrading classified securities. Freddie Prices $1 Billion STACR Offering. As the first out of eight Structured Agency Credit Risk offerings planned through October 2016, Freddie Mac...

An estimated $254.15 billion of agency mortgage servicing rights were transferred in bulk sales transactions last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level mortgage-backed securities disclosures. The peak of the market came during the second quarter of 2015, when a whopping $102.27 billion of MSR were transferred to new servicers. Some $61.80 billion of that was in the Ginnie Mae program, with Bank of America ... [Includes one data chart]

Correspondent originators and mortgage brokers continued to churn out relatively more purchase mortgages than retail lenders during the fourth quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of agency loan-level data. Some 34.6 percent of single-family loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the final three months of last year were originated by correspondent lenders. And 69.1 percent of those loans ... [Includes one data chart]

Also, the agency servicing market has continued to become less top-heavy.

Ocwen, in particular, will need to tell investors exactly how they plan to become a top-10 originator, something that seems like a long shot right now...