The Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is among a growing list of official government watchdog agencies authorized to employ armed investigators when ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse, according to a recent report. The report issued by the Congressional Research Service listed some three dozen IGs that possess law enforcement authority, which legally empowers them to make arrests, seek warrants and carry firearms.

IG Recommends FHFA Upgrade Its Recordkeeping. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is in compliance with its recordkeeping procedures but the policy and infrastructure of its records management could do with an upgrade, concluded an evaluation by FHFA’s Inspector General last week. The IG said that the Finance Agency’s Division of Enterprise Regulation’s recordkeeping practices “have limitations that impede the efficient retrieval” of examination workpapers by agency staff and by IG auditors.

The use of Federal Home Loan Bank advances among bank and thrift members rose overall during the second quarter of 2014, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. All of the nation’s banks and thrifts used a combined $437.7 billion in advances as of June 30, 2014, up 11.6 percent from the first quarter of 2014 and an 18.8 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac customer buybacks totaled $1.269 billion during the second quarter of 2014, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures made by the two government-sponsored enterprises. Lender buybacks had declined to just $522.5 million in the first three months of 2014, but the repurchase volume jumped 142.8 percent in the second quarter. While Fannie and Freddie reported that they ... [Includes two data charts]

Credit Plus, a provider of credit verification and automated loan file review services, has announced a new software application that will help lenders of agency loans defend against potential losses, indemnifications and repurchase demands. The program, QC Review, enables lenders to run pre-closing quality assurance and post-closing quality-control tests to ensure that loans they originate meet Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA/VA requirements. QC Review’s comprehensive ...

In fact, nearly a fifth of the repurchases involved loans sold to the GSEs by Lehman Brothers or its related mortgage businesses.

Mortgage lenders continued to work through a huge pile of repurchase demands related to loans securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing market crash. The two government-sponsored enterprises reported a total of $1.269 billion of repurchases by sellers during the second quarter of 2014, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter, of Securities and Exchange Commission filings by the two GSEs. That compared to just $522.5 million in repurchases during the first quarter of this year. As has been the case since the buyback issue mushroomed several years ago, most of the second-quarter repurchases focused...[Includes one data chart]

Bank of America blamed the layoffs on “continued reductions” in its legacy mortgage business “as well as actions taken in sales and fulfillment as refinance demand slowed.”

Redwood Trust ranked second in terms of issuance for the third quarter, pricing $636.0 million in jumbo MBS.

Compared to the same quarter a year ago, residential originations fell 40 percent at Wells. At JPM the downdraft was even worse...