The former chairman and owner of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker was slammed with a 30 year prison sentence and ordered to forfeit approximately $38.5 million for his key role in orchestrating a $2.9 billion fraud scheme that led to the failure of TBW and Colonial bank and counted Freddie Mac as among its victims.

Mortgages modified by Fannie Mae slightly outperformed those modified by Freddie Mac in the short term while Freddie’s loans performed moderately better a year after modification, even as the performance of mortgages serviced by the two GSEs improved during the first three months the year, according to the first quarter Mortgage Metrics report issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision.Fannie loan mods had a 12.5 percent re-default rate three months after modification, while Freddie mods saw a 13.3 percent rate. At the six-month mark, the GSEs tied at 21.4 percent.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recorded significant declines in the volume of single-family mortgages they securitized during the second quarter of 2011, according to a new analysis and ranking based on the Inside Mortgage Finance GSE MarketScope. The two government-sponsored enterprises generated a combined $155.0 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter, down a hefty 40.6 percent from the first three months of the year. It was the slowest quarter in Fannie/Freddie MBS output since the final three months of 2008, the low ... [includes 3 data charts]

Fannie Mae late last week reiterated to lenders its policy on mortgage insurance coverage while it also tweaked its requirements for reporting notifications of MI rescissions, mortgage insurer-initiated cancellations and claim denials. The government-sponsored enterprise’s announcement, published June 30, reminds servicers of their “contractual obligations” to ensure that any MI coverage required by Fannie is maintained. “Mortgage insurance claims must be pursued in a way that will at all times protect Fannie Mae’s ...

Any reform proposal determining the future of the secondary mortgage market must retain, in some reduced but meaningful form, key features and principles that give all lenders equal access to the secondary mortgage market, according to industry representatives and policy advocates. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week, community bankers and credit union industry representatives expressed their concern about a proposal to have some of the largest mortgage lenders replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if the government-sponsored enterprises were ...

The home purchase mortgage market remained anemic in May as many would-be homebuyers remained on the sidelines for the start of the historically stronger summer home purchase season. And to make matters worse, a combination of tough mortgage underwriting and a high level of distressed properties continued to push up cash sales. According to new numbers released by the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, cash sales accounted for 31.3 percent of the home purchase transactions in May. That was up from 30.1 percent in April and represented the ... [includes one graph]

Housing industry groups are making a noisy push to persuade policymakers to postpone (perhaps permanently) a planned reduction in the high-cost loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA due to expire this fall. Late last week, the National Association of Home Builders released a study which concluded that an Oct. 1 reduction in the loan limits “will reduce housing demand and place downward pressure on home prices in major housing markets.” In February, the White House proposed to “shrink the government’s footprint” in housing finance and lure back ...

The fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sees its role as helping credit markets work better to enhance viable homeownership and level the playing field in credit availability, according to key officials participating in the Mortgage Lending Industry Strategic Markets & Diversity Conference sponsored last week by ComplianceTech. “We realize now that building wealth and homeownership is a risky proposition and one that should not be taken lightly,” said Patricia McCoy, assistant director of mortgage and home equity at the CFPB. “Our job is to ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, Ginnie Mae and the government-sponsored enterprises should add another potential alternative servicing fee structure in their deliberations to revamp the compensation structure for residential servicing, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Last week the MBA sent a letter to the FHFA, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pitch-ing the merits of a Reserve Account Proposal, requesting the proposal be included among the options expected to be released for public comment within the next month. “The Reverse Account Proposal would set up ...

Mortgage servicers are being squeezed by inadequate compensation, intense scrutiny and a surge of new regulation, but Fannie Mae and the Treasury Department say they are trying to even the score. Servicers no longer see their job as financially rewarding and have been leaving their positions accordingly, claimed Diane Pendley, managing director of Fitch Ratings, during a panel session at this week’s annual meeting of the American Securitization Forum. “We’re seeing them fighting – they’re coming out swinging, just really to get some balance,” echoed Gwen Muse-Evans, vice president and chief risk officer at Fannie Mae. “There’s definitely a perception that...