Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a slight decline in their single-family mortgage business during the first three months of 2016 – in fact, it was the slowest quarter in nearly two years – according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises issued $172.97 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter of this year, a 3.4 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. It was the slowest three-month volume since the second quarter of 2014, and the fourth-lowest output since the GSEs were put in conservatorship back in 2008. The slowdown stemmed...[Includes three data tables]

United Guaranty last week filed papers for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a first step to split from its parent company, American International Group, Inc. UG, the mortgage insurance subsidiary of AIG, has filed a proposed aggregate offering of $100 million of common stock but pricing has not been determined. The IPO will not launch until later this year, but if the weak IPO market picks up soon, “it would change things a great deal,” according to an analysis by investment research firm Seeking Alpha. In late January, AIG announced...

Total gripes to the bureau slid 5.0 percent in the first quarter and were off 3.0 percent on an annual basis...

CSS, a joint venture of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is hiring at its main site in Bethesda, MD, as well as its office in Pasadena, CA.

This so-called agency “patch” was set up to last for seven years, or until 2021...

At yearend, Cenlar ranked first in subservicing contracts...

Of course, just because five industry vets have issued a white paper, that doesn’t mean it can readily yield into legislation.

The link between loan sales and mortgage-banking income can be squishy…

Although BLS reported declines, recent interviews conducted by IMFnews suggest that some nondepositories are in a hiring mode this spring, especially for retail loan officers.

Overall consumer complaints to the CFPB reached their lowest level in at least a year and a half, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside the CFPB. Total gripes to the bureau slid 5.0 percent in the first quarter and were off 3.0 percent on an annual basis, data from the CFPB consumer complaint database show. Kvetching about residential mortgages was down slightly more, falling 6.7 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, for those two time periods. In fact, mortgage-related belly-aching hasn’t been this low since the fourth quarter of 2013. The most dramatic change was seen in the prepaid card space, where criticisms plunged 73.3 percent in 1Q16. ... [with exclusive data chart] ...