Is it time to take another look at GSE servicing fees? A topic is reborn...

Frustrated by inaction on housing finance reform, a dozen conservative organizations led by the National Taxpayers Union called on Congress to begin recapitalizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The coalition of center-right organizations urged Congress to pass H.R. 4913, the “Housing Finance Restructuring Act of 2016.” They said the Treasury sweep of the government-sponsored enterprises’ profits implemented in 2012 has “jeopardized” the financial system and taxpayers. “If there is one thing this presidential campaign has revealed, it is...

How disruptive were MSR ‘marks’? The nine nonbank lenders tracked by Inside Mortgage Trends reported a combined $510.0 million loss in the first quarter…

When Freddie recently unveiled a first-quarter loss due to hedges affected by falling interest rates, MBA chief Dave Stevens issued a statement once again calling for Congress to enact housing-finance reform, but said nothing about the issue of zero capital.

The average credit score for purchase loans securitized last month was 749.7, the first time that measure has been below 750 in over two years.

In the first quarter, 11.2 percent of Fannie/Freddie purchase loans had credit scores below 700 and LTV ratios of 81 percent or higher. That was up from 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter…

To significantly reduce credit risk, all mortgages sold to Ginnie 2.0 would require a private credit enhancement attached to the loans…

Ocwen Financial continues to rule the roost in terms of subprime servicing…

Hensarling Slams CFPB, Vows Big Changes to Dodd-Frank, the Bureau. During a speech last week at the National Center for Policy Analysis, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pledged to push a package of pro-growth, pro-consumer reforms as an alternative to the Dodd-Frank Act, including clipping the wings of the CFPB. “At almost every opportunity, the bureau abuses and exceeds its statutory authority, which is already immense,” said the congressman. “The bureau operates with such secrecy, unaccountability, and bureaucratic tyranny it would make a Soviet Commissar blush.”As the committee moves forward with its plans for financial reform, Hensarling promised the Republicans will have ...

Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton said in a phone interview with Inside The GSEs last week that the phrase “front-end risk sharing” is not well understood. He said almost all of the credit-risk transfer transactions can be referred to as front end because the terms are front end. “The risk-transfer mechanism is back end, the risk-transfer arrangement is front end,” he said. “If the loan comes to us and is put in one of our mortgage-backed securities, it is in fact a back-end risk transfer,” he said, explaining that if the loan goes bad the owner of the MBS takes the loss and looks to...