Wells Fargo and Bank of America rank first and second, respectively, among bank home equity lenders, according to exclusive rankings from Inside Mortgage Finance.

What if the U.S. government actually defaults on its debt – what would that do to the value of MBS and Treasuries held on the balance sheet of banks? You may not want to know the answer.

Laurel Davis, a vice president at Fannie Mae, said the GSE learned from Freddie’s transaction and the pending risk-sharing deal from Fannie is set to receive an investment grade rating from Fitch Ratings.

The top five FHA funders – Wells Fargo, Quicken Loans, Freedom Mortgage Corp., Bank of America and Flagstar Bank – saw their combined originations decline by 5 percent.

Every component in the residential MBS market was down from the second quarter, and trending lower on a monthly basis, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

Starting in 2014, the FHLB will purchase conventional, conforming fixed-rate mortgages and FHA/VA products from its members, but some of the product will be funneled to Fannie Mae via the MPF Xtra program.

Fannie Mae remains on track to securitize $30 billion in multifamily loans this year, compared with nearly $34 billion in 2012, which would meet the FHFA scorecard target.

Fannie Mae plans to issue a $675 million risk-sharing securitization in a transaction that likely will hit the market by mid-October, according to potential investors who were briefed on the government-sponsored enterprise’s plans. Market participants said Fannie has contemplated issuing two such transactions by year-end, but the company isn’t talking about specifics, at least not yet. Still, the GSE is laying...

Has Paul Reddman given up trying to sell CashCall, the refi specialist? Meanwhile, MBS issuance got whacked in the third quarter.

Officials at Redwood Trust are calling for a gradual decline in conforming loan limits as opposed to an immediate repeal of the high-cost agency loan limits. Martin Hughes, CEO and director of the real estate investment trust, said market disruption due to a decline in loan limits is unlikely while non-agency mortgage-backed security investors said additional reforms are necessary. “If the conforming loan limits are reduced, I believe the private market would aggressively compete for those loans that exceed the new limit without any market disruption,” Hughes wrote in testimony this week for a hearing by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He drew a parallel to the reduction of the high-cost loan limit in 2012 from $729,750 to $625,500. A gradual decline in the high-cost loan limit would be...