Although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported combined comprehensive income of $6.8 billion in the third quarter of 2014 – thanks in no small part to strong guaranty fee revenue – the two government-sponsored enterprises both said they’re keeping a wary eye on the precarious financial condition of private mortgage insurers. Fannie noted in its 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that although the financial condition of its primary MI counterparties approved to write new business has improved, there is still risk that they may fail to honor the GSE’s insurance claims. “If we determine that it is probable that we will not collect all of our claims from one or more of these mortgage insurer counterparties, or if we have already made that determination but our estimate of the shortfall increases, it could result...
Income documentation and other standards that have been in place since Fannie Mae entered conservatorship in 2008 will apply to the company’s new 3 percent downpayment product, and loan assessment by a private mortgage insurer will be crucial, according to a company spokesman. The spokesman said details will be announced shortly. Fannie Mae is working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency to design the government-sponsored enterprise’s revamped 97 percent loan-to-value product. Sources said previous requirements for a standard 97 LTV product, which Fannie offered until November 2013, are being considered. The FHFA announced...
Some publicly traded nonbanks are facing possible class-action lawsuits from angry investors who’ve seen billions of dollars in stock equity evaporate over the past year.
As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to expand their credit-risk transactions, the two government-sponsored enterprises and their regulator should look to other ways to minimize credit risk, industry insiders told attendees of an Urban Institute/CoreLogic housing forum this week. In its most recent strategic plan for the GSEs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is calling on Fannie and Freddie to reduce their exposure to risk by tripling the amount of credit-risk transfers they conduct on their single-family business from $30 billion last year to $90 billion in 2014. Mark Hanson, Freddie’s senior vice president, securitization, told...
The mortgage industry cannot and should not wait for Congress to get around to a legislative solution to the government-sponsored enterprises when much of what is necessary can be accomplished administratively, according to experts at a forum hosted by the Urban Institute and CoreLogic. Andrew Davidson, president of Andrew Davidson & Co., noted that among the lessons of this year’s failure to launch a Senate GSE reform bill is that lawmakers find it easier to agree on a set of principles for a mortgage finance system than on the system’s design. With legislation a long shot before the 2016 presidential elections, Davidson said...
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