Two different groups holding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock filed suit against the government this week claiming that the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency are illegally poaching the profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that should go to shareholders. The FHFA and Treasury illegally implemented the so-called sweep amendment last summer that altered Fannie’s and Freddie’s preferred stock purchase agreements, according to the suits. The amended agreement allows the government to seize nearly all the profits of the two government-sponsored enterprises. This is a direct violation of the 2008 conservatorship legislation, according to the lawsuit filed by hedge fund Perry Capital in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Less than two days later, Fairholme Capital Management filed...

Private mortgage insurers may be gaining momentum as the mortgage market steers toward a greater focus on purchase-mortgage lending, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac data. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized a total of $56.11 billion of home loans that included private MI coverage during the second quarter of 2013. That was up 12.1 percent from the first three months of the year, compared to a 5.1 percent decline in total GSE business over that period. Private MI activity is...[Includes one data chart]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced this that week that they will rely on mortgage sellers to make sure all the loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises starting next year will be “qualified mortgages” that meet the controversial limit on points and fees. Some aspects of the QM standard will be easy to quantify and meet, such as maximum loan terms of 30 years and no interest-only payment plans. The 43 percent cap on debt-to-income ratio that’s part of the ability-to-repay rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be waived for the GSEs. The stickiest wicket is...

New mortgage reform legislation expected soon to be dropped by a senior House Republican is all but certain to go nowhere this year, but having a bill on file and in hand is a necessity in order for GOP hawks to keep their voice in the conversation on government-sponsored enterprise reform, say industry observers. By the end of next week, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, will introduce his long-awaited housing reform legislation, sources say. Details of the bill remain sketchy, but it’s to include a complete wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with only a limited federal support for the mortgage market going forward, most likely housed within the FHA. Hensarling’s legislative effort has been overshadowed...

The jumbo MBS market has another new issuer: Nomura. But the credit enhancement on its first deal was increased due to geographic concentration risk.

Just as with the Perry GSE litigation, Fairholme’s suit demands that the Treasury amendment to the preferred stock purchase agreement be voided.

Agency MBS accounted for 98 percent of credit union investments in mortgage securities, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

Any lender that has refis greater than 50 percent could be at risk for layoffs, said one industry consultant.

The suit was filed in December 2012 on behalf of hundreds of thousands of investors who bought stock in an offering by Fannie in May 2008, four months before the GSE was taken over by the government.

Freddie Mac is rolling out a new version of an old mortgage security product designed to distribute the credit risk of borrowers paying back their mortgages to the private markets. The government-sponsored enterprise has begun marketing a new product, the Structured Agency Credit Risk security, which is designed to lay off credit risk to the private capital market on a scalable basis without impacting the TBA market or increasing counterparty risk. Freddie attempted a similar product in 1998 before deciding it was a failure. A Freddie spokesman said...