The $11.6 billion deal resolved Fannie's long-standing claims that BofA sold the GSE defective mortgages and mishandled various loans it serviced for Fannie between 2000 and 2008.

Significant opposition to lowering the GSE loan limits will come from Realtors, home builders and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.

As feared by the residential finance industry, an increase in upfront mortgage insurance premiums is hurting participation in the FHA program by first-time buyers.

On a combined basis, the nine lender/servicers tracked by Inside Mortgage Trends generated $243 billion in single-family mortgages during the second quarter, a little less than half the entire market.

With Fannie lowering its LTV maximum it will reduce the pool of eligible GSE borrowers and likely shift those loans over to FHA, which means private mortgage insurance firms will lose business.

S&P has been the top non-agency MBS rating agency over the years but DBRS captured the title in 2012 with 55 percent of rated transactions, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

“Three years appears to be an inordinately long period to fully implement the advisory bulletin,” writes the IG of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Mortgage brokers are continuing to lose market share, but the decline could be temporary, especially if the megabanks run out of refis.

Combined with the 15 companies that previously reported earnings, mortgage banking income jumped 10 percent in the second quarter, to $7.51 billion.

Roughly, 60 percent of real estate loans made by credit unions are sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, compared to only 44 percent for all financial institutions.