The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced two key staffing changes this week, including the appointment of Sandra Thompson as deputy director of the FHFA’s Division of Housing Mission and Goals. Thompson will move from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to the Finance Agency where she will oversee the FHFA’s housing and regulatory policy, financial analysis and policy research.She will join the FHFA in March after serving at the FDIC in various capacities over the past 23 years, most recently as director, Division of Risk Management Supervision.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined did more business in single-family mortgage-backed securities issuance in 2012 than in any year since 2003, with a growing share of their business coming from small and mid-sized lenders, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis. The two GSEs pumped out a staggering $1.266 trillion in new single-family MBS in 2012, a 48.1 percent increase over their total production in 2011. It marked the biggest annual output by Fannie and Freddie since the all-time record of $1.912 trillion nine years earlier.

Interest rates on adjustable-rate mortgages fell to their lowest level ever early this year, but consumers continue to prefer fixed-rate products. Freddie Mac reported that the average initial rate for one-year ARMs offered in early January was just 2.56 percent, the lowest ever recorded in its 29-year-old survey. Fewer than half the participating lenders offer one-year ARMs, but initial rates on the more common three-year and five-year hybrids were 2.72 percent and ... [Includes one data chart]

It’s no secret that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are back in the black when it comes to earnings, but in the quarters ahead the two are likely to perform even better as delinquencies and foreclosures continue to wane, and they move to recapture some of their massive loss reserves. But another factor could bolster their earnings as well: large legal settlements with the nation’s megabanks, which will go straight to their bottom line, according to an analysis done by Inside The GSEs. As part of Fannie’s buyback settlement with Bank of America (see related story on page 1), Fannie will receive some $3.6 billion in cash from the bank, plus BofA is repurchasing almost $7 billion in legacy loans.

With roughly $900 billion of mortgage servicing rights changing hands since October (or about to), and more on the way, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be busy in the months ahead approving the transfer of MSRs.Much of the MSR product being sold by Bank of America in its recent deal with Nationstar Mortgage and Walter Investment Management Corp. is tied to loans guaranteed by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie Mae.Servicing advisors who’ve worked with the GSEs note that their approval on a servicing sale is hardly a routine matter, especially if the product has high delinquencies, which is the case with some of the BofA receivables.

Last week’s $10 billion settlement between Fannie Mae and Bank of America over outstanding and potential repurchase claims is at least a truce in the bitter battle between the GSE and the bank that has simmered since the housing bubble burst. But the jury is still out as to how much business the two companies will do again going forward. Under the agreement, BofA will pay Fannie $3.55 billion cash and spend $6.75 billion to buy back some 30,000 loans sold by Countrywide Financial to the GSE. The “comprehensive solution” between the firms covers current and future repurchase obligations related to loans with an outstanding balance of $297 billion as of Nov. 30, 2012, that were originated and sold directly to Fannie from 2000 through 2008. The bank will also pay Fannie $1.3 billion in “compensatory fee obligations” for taking too long to address foreclosures.

A temporary exemption for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages is among the plethora of provisions contained within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s long-awaited “qualified mortgage” rule issued last week. Even so, credit unions fear onerous GSE buyback requirements may be an unintended consequence of the new rule.Called for by the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB’s QM rule lists the characteristics of a qualified mortgage, or one that regulators will presume will be within a borrower’s ability to repay the loan.

New Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buyback policies, advanced at the behest of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, could lead to a secondary mortgage market with fewer products and less competition from credit unions and smaller lenders, according to a trade group representing CUs. In a comment letter to the FHFA this week, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions said any new buyback requirement by the two government-sponsored enterprises could hurt CUs and other small lenders disproportionately because they lack the volume of loans or the capital needed to support a buyback program. “This would be...

During the final three months of 2012, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized some $52.72 billion of single-family home loans that were covered by private mortgage insurance, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. That total represented 14.4 percent of the business done by the two government-sponsored enterprises during the fourth quarter – although there was significant variation among the GSEs’ top sellers in terms of the share of their deliveries covered by PMI. Some $8.42 billion of PMI-insured mortgages were pooled...[Includes one data chart]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week issued a long-awaited final rule that establishes ability-to-repay and qualified mortgage (QM) standards, as well as a second, temporary category of QMs for government-backed mortgages to avoid market disruption. At the same time, the CFPB sought comment on a proposed rule that would exclude new and existing FHA, VA and Rural Housing Service (U.S. Department of Agriculture) programs that facilitate refinancings for borrowers at risk of delinquency or default. The temporary QM category was spurred by CFPB’s concern about the ...