Despite rumors to the contrary, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac forked over most of their fourth-quarter earnings to the Treasury Department at the end of March, as scheduled. But some industry insiders wonder whether the timing of future payments will be altered to reduce the likelihood that either of the government-sponsored enterprises might need another bailout. In early March, there were talks predicting, or hoping for everything from a possible suspension of the Treasury sweep to replacing the quarterly payment with an annual one. Speculation may have been fueled by uncertainty about what the Trump administration wants to do about the now eight-year-old conservatorships of the two GSEs. In 2017, Fannie and Freddie can only retain...
Wells Fargo’s legal woes are continuing after a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week ordered the company to face several lawsuits by institutional investors alleging MBS fraud. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that Wells Fargo must face five lawsuits by a few dozen funds that are holding the bank liable for losses incurred after the MBS they purchased lost value due to the financial crisis. The plaintiffs include...
Single-family business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell sharply in the first quarter of 2017 and the wholesale-broker channel bore much of the brunt of the decline. The two government-sponsored enterprises issued $218.2 billion in new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter, a 27.1 percent drop from the final three months of 2016. But a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals that the supply of mortgages originated ... [Includes two data charts]
Rep. Sherman of California noted: “Studies have shown that in some geographic areas, it is possible to determine the identity of nearly 100 percent of the borrowers using the data that lenders are required to collect and report by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw substantial declines in new single-family business during the first quarter of 2017, but the purchase-mortgage side showed some life in March, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises guaranteed $218.22 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first three months of the year. That was down 27.1 percent from the fourth quarter total of $299.25 billion – the biggest quarterly flow in GSE business since the second quarter of 2013. The refinance market was...[Includes three data tables]