Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $67.7 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the month of October, a 13.8 percent decline from September but a 4.6 percent rise for the first 10 months of 2013, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. October’s decline was less steep than September’s 20.0 percent month-to-month fall off in MBS.Top-ranked Wells Fargo’s Fannie and Freddie securitization at $11.6 billion fell both on monthly and year-to-date bases by 27.0 percent and 23.3 percent respectively. [Includes one data chart.]

Court Dismisses Freddie Shareholders Subprime Lawsuit. A federal appeals court this week dismissed a lawsuit brought by Freddie Mac shareholders accusing the GSE of hiding the state of its finances and it subprime mortgage exposure before the 2008 financial crisis.The shareholders – led by Central States, Southeast and Southwest Area Pension Fund – accused Freddie of hiding its potential insolvency even after revealing a $2 billion quarterly loss in November 2007. Freddie, along with fellow GSE Fannie Mae, was placed into conservatorship in September 2008.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this week reported a combined $3.53 billion of mortgage repurchases and other buyback resolutions during the third quarter of 2013, the lowest quarterly amount in three years, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Buyback resolutions declined by 28.2 percent from the second quarter, even as the government-sponsored enterprises wrapped up large-scale settlements with a handful of their largest sellers. Fannie and Freddie so far this year ... [Includes one data chart]

Look who has a bigger piece of the mortgage servicing pie: nonbanks that do not fall under the purview of the Fed, FDIC and other regulatory agencies.

bivey@imfpubs.com Walter Investment Management is the latest servicer to transition to a “capital lite” business model, announcing the formation of a REIT to hold mortgage servicing rights. Walter said the new Walter Capital Opportunity unit will acquire certain MSRs while Walter Investment Management subservices the loans. Rival special servicers Nationstar Mortgage and Ocwen Financial have already created or partnered with similar affiliated MSR investors and Two Harbors Investment, a REIT, announced a like-minded agreement with PHH this…

Redwood started acquiring agency mortgages from correspondent lenders in mid-October. The REIT noted that the activity helps create mortgage servicing rights for it to invest in.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have almost "repaid" their debt to the U.S. Treasury. But will it change the debate on the future of the GSEs?

How many loans per month should a loan officer be closing when times are lean? According to Dave Lykken of Mortgage Banking Solutions, if an LO isn’t closing at least six loans per month, they might want to consider employment elsewhere.

Figuring out the details on how to structure, capitalize and operate new secondary-market facilities for small lenders are key challenges for the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee as it pushes to mark up mortgage reform legislation by the end of this year. This week, lawmakers pushed lender trade groups to come together and find answers. The bipartisan Senate blueprint for secondary mortgage market reform includes several key provisions designed to facilitate small-lender access when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are no longer around, including creation of a new mutual or cooperatively-owned institution through which lenders could issue conventional mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the government. If a new MBS mutual for small lenders is going to be competitive, it will have to be capitalized...[Includes one data chart]

Despite this year’s implementation of a new Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac representations and warranties framework that offers some repurchase relief three years after a loan is sold, officials from the two government-sponsored enterprises agree that the best way to beat a buyback request is to focus on quality control. Participants during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week said the new reps and warranties policy has brought greatly increased scrutiny of new mortgages guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. “Quality in the loan-manufacturing process is...