The 12 Federal Home Loan Banks saw modest gains in net interest income in 2014, but other factors led to declines in total income, according to preliminary data released by the Office of Finance. The FHLBanks earned a combined $2.246 billion in net income last year, down 11.0 percent from 2013. Their fourth-quarter income, $550 million, was down 12.3 percent from the previous quarter. Results varied significantly among the FHLBanks, however. Chicago was the most profitable, reporting $392 million in net income for the year, up 14.3 percent from 2013. New York had $315 million in net income in 2014, up 3.3 percent from the previous year. The two steepest declines were at Indianapolis and Dallas, both of which saw [with one exclusive chart] ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employment numbers were relatively steady in the past year while expenses increased, according to a new analysis by Inside The GSEs. While staffing at Freddie has remained relatively level since the end of 2008, Fannie Mae has significantly boosted its employee count. As of the end of January, Fannie had approximately 7,600 personnel, including full-time and part-time employees, term employees and employees on leave, according to the latest annual report from the GSE. The employee count increased by 2.7 percent compared with January 2014. Fannie spent $1.32 billion on salaries and employee benefits in 2014, up 8.5 percent compared with 2013. Freddie had 4,957 full-time employees and 50 part-time employees as of Feb. 5, down ...

With it looking more likely that the GSEs could survive in some form, a critic of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has proposed changes he suggests would address most of the flaws he sees in the companies. Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said he offered the suggestions “in the spirit of lively debate.” He suggested that the federal government should open GSE charters to competition, allowing any firm that can meet the requirements to receive a GSE charter. Calabria said GSEs should have a capital requirement of at least 8.0 percent. Capital of 4.0 percent to 5.0 percent would have covered the losses Fannie and Freddie experienced in 2007, according ...

Remarks from the leadership of the GSEs and earnings-related disclosures suggest more sales of non-performing loans are in the cards this year. Freddie Mac is putting together its first NPL auction of 2015, CEO Don Layton said in a recent interview with IMFnews, an affiliated daily news service. Layton declined to provide any details, noting that the GSE has yet to make an official announcement on the coming sale. This past summer, Freddie sold $659 million of “deeply” delinquent loans from its investment portfolio. At the time, it marked a first for a GSE. Isaac Boltansky, an analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading, said, “GSE management’s commentary reinforces our view that the GSEs are moving slowly but surely towards ...

A series of court decisions have affirmed the supremacy of the executive branch of government in its regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the chagrin of private-equity investors seeking compensation in the wake of the financial crisis, according to a recent analysis by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Those recent court decisions confirm the fact that the two GSEs are “instrumentalities of the federal government and not private corporations,” Kroll analysts said. “While this reality may bother some equity investors – and rightly so – this is good news for bond investors,” they noted. For equity investors, the court decisions underscore the fact that the GSEs are “creatures of Congress,” the analysts pointed out. In contrast, private corporations are governed by ...

The flow of refinance mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased during the fourth quarter, but the two GSEs continued to see declining volume in the Home Affordable Refinance Program. According to figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie and Freddie securitized 432,376 refinance mortgages in the fourth quarter, up 11.1 percent from the previous period. Fannie had the bigger gain, 16.2 percent. But total HARP activity fell 15.3 percent from the third quarter, and for the year it was down 75.9 percent from 2013 levels. The biggest slowdown in HARP were mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 105 percent. Both GSEs are doing more non-HARP streamlined refi business than in the program set up in 2009 for underwater ... [with two exclusive charts] ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently updated its regulatory guidance for the Federal Home Loan Banks on the reporting of fraudulent financial instruments. The new guidance instructs the FHLBanks to implement policies and procedures for complying with the reporting requirements regarding anti-money laundering and suspicious activity that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network published Feb. 25, 2014. The FinCEN regulation takes some of the provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act and applies them to the FHLBanks, and delegates examination responsibility to the FHFA to determine compliance. “Generally, the FinCEN regulation requires that each regulated entity develop an anti-money laundering program and file suspicious activity reports (SARs), among other requirements,” the FHFA said. The FinCEN reg took effect April 28, 2014. The ...

Bulletin 2015-2. Feb. 17. Freddie Mac announced updates to the following: Guide Forms 16SF, Annual Eligibility Certification Report, and 1107SF, Seller/Servicer Change Notification Form, to implement a new requirement that seller/servicers review the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Suspended Counterparty program list; and Form 1035, Document Custodial Agreement: Single-Family Mortgages. On the servicing side, Freddie revised notification requirements for bankruptcy cramdowns, including Form 1155, Bankruptcy Cramdown Pre-Confirmation Proposal Settlement Terms. It updated reporting and remittance requirements for properties purchased by third parties at foreclosure sale, including new Form 1160, Third-Party Sale Transmittal Worksheet. Freddie also updated rollback reporting requirements and insurance loss settlement requirements, and made clarifications related to bankruptcy filings after a foreclosure sale...

Servicers are benefitting from quicker transaction times on short sales, according to Fannie Mae. The government-sponsored enterprise said transaction time has been cut in half for short sales compared with the end of 2012, though the number of these transactions has also declined significantly. Short-sale transaction timelines currently average 45 days to 60 days, down from an average of 120 days in late 2012, according to a post on Fannie’s Housing Industry Forum website. The GSE said the HomePath short sale portal has helped reduce the time it takes to complete a short sale. The portal was released...

Only one lender accounted for more than 10 percent of the single-family mortgage volume completed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2014: Wells Fargo. The bank also dominates deliveries to Ginnie Mae and originations of jumbo mortgages. Wells had $180.89 billion in mortgage originations in 2014, accounting for 14.6 percent of total mortgage originations, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. The bank’s share of mortgage originations declined from 18.9 percent in 2013 as refinance activity slowed and nonbanks made efforts to compete for production and servicing. Officials at Wells said...