Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized $43.28 billion of single-family loans covered by private mortgage insurance during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. First-quarter PMI business was down 7.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014, although overall mortgage-backed securities issuance by the two government-sponsored enterprises was up 5.9 percent over the same period. All of the increase ... [Includes two data charts]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are legally bound to poverty and to remain instruments of the federal government in perpetuity, but Treasury officials argue that the current conservatorship arrangement is better for the government-sponsored enterprises and the housing market. At a seminar in Washington, DC, this week, Treasury Counselor Michael Stegman said that the GSEs benefit from the agreement under which nearly all of their profits are siphoned off by the government ...

Credit unions now lay claim to almost 10 percent of the residential lending market.

BofA continues to carve down the size of its mortgage servicing portfolio.

The general fear is that higher-than-needed capital standards will cause mortgage insurers to hold unnecessary amounts of assets that will force the industry to raise premiums.

The remaining undrawn taxpayer commitment to the GSEs is $258.1 billion dollars, Stegman noted.

“Fannie and Freddie have made tremendous strides to provide clarity in the system and create innovations,” said Peter Carroll, executive vice president for mortgage policy and counter party relations at Quicken Loans.

The share of GSE business that came from the top five sellers increased slightly in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the previous quarter.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued a robust $189.92 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first three months of 2015, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis.Business in the GSEs’ core MBS guaranty program grew 5.9 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. The pace in early 2015 was up a hefty 47.0 percent from the same period last year, which was the weakest quarter in over a decade. Nonbank seller/servicers continued to gain market share. These companies accounted for 45.6 percent of GSE MBS issued in early 2015, and their total production was up 7.7 percent from the previous quarter. (Includes 2 exclusive charts).

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sent letters on April 7 to the Department of Justice and the Treasury requesting documents and details regarding the government’s 2011 decision to take the bulk of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s profits. This comes on the heels of reports suggesting President Obama has invoked executive privilege over some of the documents pertaining to the decision. While admitting that he’s unclear whether or not the president asserted executive privilege, Grassley emphasized the importance of transparency and said taxpayers have a right to know what transpired that resulted in billions of dollars going to the Treasury. “But instead of transparency, there appears to be an invocation of executive privilege,” he said. “If true, this is cause for concern.”