Top single-family executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac described new technology upgrades and the success of their credit-risk transfer programs during remarks at last week’s secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Andrew Bon Salle, executive vice-president for single-family business at Fannie, said the GSE is working to enhance the customer experience and make doing business with the company simpler and more certain. He said customers are reporting sharp gains in efficiency from Fannie’s collateral underwriting tool, and a new version of Desktop Underwriter will be rolled out next month. A key feature in version 10.0 of DU is the inclusion of trended credit data.

Wells Fargo partnered with Fannie Mae to roll out a new 3 percent down loan program with easier qualifying guidelines catered to first-time homebuyers and low- to moderate-income borrowers. Wells Executive Vice President Brad Blackwell told Inside The GSEs that yourFirstMortgage will replace three other high-LTV GSE programs it offers. “We’ve created a single, hybrid product,” he said. In addition to a high loan-to-value ratio, the program allows downpayment and closing costs to come from gifts and downpayment assistance programs. It also offers expanded income and credit guidelines. The need to expand access to credit has been a reoccurring theme in the industry, and Wells said it’s doing just that by considering FICO scores as low...

An issue over whether the government had the right to use executive privilege to keep thousands of documents from disclosure is the centerpiece of GSE lawsuits by investors.Fifty-three documents were made public last week and helps solidify their argument that there was no need to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie because they had more than enough capital to weather the financial crisis. The Treasury Department provided the documents to plaintiffs last week as part of a court case in Kentucky and some are calling the release a game-changer in terms of the anticipation of more documents being released. One of those high-ranking officials is Jim Parrott, former White House housing finance executive and now a fellow at the Urban Institute.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt is worried about mission creep in the Federal Home Loan Banks and urges them to return to focusing on their core constituents. During remarks at the Federal Home Loan Bank Director’s Conference in Washington this week, Watt said the FHFA continues to monitor whether the FHLBanks are sufficiently focused on their core mission of providing advances and supporting secondary mortgage market access for member institutions. …

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis awarded members this month its first aggregated pool payout in the Mortgage Purchase Program. The MPP was created to reward members for selling high-credit, quality performing loans. Forty-three Indiana and Michigan depository members received more than $761,000 in Lender Risk Account fund payouts. These payouts ranged from $65 up to as much as $112,000 depending on the dollar volume of originated mortgages sold into the pool. The MPP also offers stand-alone pools but the aggregate pools give smaller originators access to more competitive loan pricing that normally only would be available to larger-volume loan originators. Participants in the pool begin receiving LRA payouts...

The Single Security is on target for implementation in Freddie Mac’s platform in 2017 and is set to reach the second stage in 2018, according to officials speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association secondary market conference last week. David Applegate, CEO of Common Securitization Solutions, the joint venture owned by the GSEs that is building the Common Securitization Platform, said in 2018 Fannie Mae will switch its to-be-announced business to the CSP and begin issuing Single Securities that will be fully interchangeable with Freddie Single Securities. The GSE plans to use the CSP for all of its new mortgage-backed securities issues, including non-to-be-announced products such as securities backed by adjustable-rate mortgages, said Renee Schultz, senior vice president of capital markets at Fannie.

Financing for two- to four-unit properties has become difficult since the housing crisis and Laurie Goodman, codirector of the Housing Finance Policy Center, suggests the GSEs relax the loan-to-value ratios on those properties. When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened LTV requirements based on higher default rates on two- to four-unit properties, Goodman said in a new report, the GSEs may have “overcorrected." Lending for these properties was 5 to 6 percent of all single-family lending prior to 2009, said Goodman, but has since fallen to 2 to 3 percent of origination share. She blames the GSEs’ current higher loan-to-value lending requirement.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General reported that the compensation resulting from six months of probes into criminal and civil investigations amounted to $3.6 billion. The bulk of the monetary damages awarded, more than $3 billion, was in civil settlements, while more than $480 million was from criminal fines, restitutions, forfeitures, and settlements. There were a total of 53 indictments, five trials, 73 convictions and 75 sentencings. Laura Wertheimer, inspector general at the FHFA, said when there’s not sufficient evident to refer a case for criminal charges, the FHFA will work to bring civil claims. One of those recent civil settlements was with Morgan Stanley, which agreed to pay a $2.7 billion penalty to resolve claims related to its mortgage-backed securities.

Following a yearlong spree of nationwide outreach events and social media campaigns, the Federal Housing Finance Agency hosted its final webinar this week to encourage participation in the Home Affordable Refinance Program. HARP is set to expire on Dec. 31, but the agency is making a final push to reach out to some 325,290 borrowers it says are still eligible for refinance. While participation continues to dwindle since the program was introduced in 2009, FHFA said homeowners can still save $2,400 a year with a HARP refinance before time runs out. The agency shot down a couple of program myths and emphasized that being significantly underwater doesn’t disqualify borrowers from HARP and said...

Ditech and HLP Principal-Reduction Outreach. Ditech Financial and Hope Loan Port collaborated to find distressed homeowners eligible for the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s new principal- reduction modification program. The two parties said HLP’s platform “is designed to integrate HUD-approved non-profit housing counselors seamlessly and securely with Ditech’s mortgage servicing operations, enabling counselors to more easily help homeowners who may qualify for the program.” Freddie’s Third NPL Transaction of 2016. This week Freddie Mac announced a $783 million non-performing loan transaction featuring seven pools, including two extended timeline pools targeting smaller investors. The NPLs are currently serviced by Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC. FHFA Request for Comment. The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a request for comment this week for a host of technical...