Industry groups commenting on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s adjustments to the conforming loan limit by July 27 were primarily supportive with the exception of one trade organization. Trade group commenters include American Bankers Association, CoreLogic, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions and the National Association of Realtors. The FHFA plans to use the “expanded data” house price index published by the agency since 2011 to make adjustments to the baseline conforming loan limit. David Stevens, president and CEO of the MBA said the FHFA’s review regarding alternative indexes is thorough.

Freddie Mac launched a new credit risk-transfer offering late last week that’s structured more like a non-agency mortgage backed security. One analyst said it could prompt more participation from real estate investment trusts. The $300 million offering, the Freddie Mac Whole Loan Security, features a $278 million senior class guaranteed by the GSE and a $23 million subordinate actual-loss security. WLS 2015 SC01 is backed by super-conforming loans originated in the fourth quarter of 2014 and early 2015. The GSE said by shifting some of its credit risk from the underlying mortgages to subordinate investors, the new offering compliments its Structured Agency Credit Risk and Agency Credit Insurance offerings.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, which operates the Mortgage Partnership Finance Direct Program for nine FHLBanks, began issuing Ginnie Mae securities last week. Its first issuance was a $5 million security backed by mortgages originated by community lenders through the MPF Government MBS product. With the MPF Government MBS product, the MPF program buys fixed-rate mortgage loans originated by FHLBank members that are insured or guaranteed by government agencies. Matt Feldman, president of the Chicago FHLBank, called it “an important milestone for the MPF Program,” adding that Ginnie Mae securities are among the most liquid financial instruments in the world. He said the new product will allow FHLBank members to offer competitive FHA, VA and government guaranteed Native American and rural housing mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently established guidelines for the Federal Home Loan Banks to use when developing their individual strategic business plans.These guidelines were created to help determine if the 11 institutions are successfully achieving their core mission of making advances and establishing limits on its maximum holdings of acquired member assets.The FHLBanks are also charged with supporting their banks’ housing finance and community lending mission in less direct ways including advance commitments, housing finance agency debt instruments and investment in certain small business investment company securities and more.In assessing each of the banks’ core mission achievement the FHFA said it will calculate the ratio of its Primary Mission Assets relative to Consolidated Obligations at the...

Software company Ellie Mae recently teamed up with Fannie Mae to incorporate Fannie’s risk management tools into its system to make it easier for lenders to do business with the GSE. This will help ensure that the loans meet Fannie’s sale eligibility requirements. Although Ellie Mae has its own system, Encompass LOS, the company decided to incorporate Fannie’s risk management tools, like Desktop Underwriter, Collateral Underwriter and Early Check software, into Encompass. The California-based company said it hopes the integration will enhance transparency and avoid any potential last-minute surprises since the system will examine loans beginning from eligibility all the way to loan delivery.

Fannie’s New Headquarters. Fannie Mae will begin occupying its new state-of-the-art headquarters in Washington, DC in 2017, replacing the site of the Washington Post building. Renderings filed with the DC’s Board of Zoning Adjustment illustrate window-filled twin buildings connected by several bridges and notes that it will have about 1.2 million square feet spread out among 12 stories and retail on the bottom. Freddie Mac SVP Receives Award. Christina Boyle, a Freddie senior vice president, was named a 2015 “Power Player” by MReport, honoring women in housing finance. GSE Q2 Earnings Release Date. Freddie Mac announced that it will release its second-quarter 2015 financial results on Tuesday morning, Aug. 4. Freddie Prices Second Q Certificate. Freddie Mac priced its second Q Certificates...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are getting more business in the so-called conforming-jumbo market this year, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis of mortgage-backed securities data.Through the first six months of 2015, the two GSEs securitized $39.44 billion of home loans that exceed $417,000, the maximum loan amount in areas that are not designated high-cost markets. That figure, including only mortgages for one-unit properties, was up 112.5 percent from the first half of 2014, about double the 55.8 percent growth rate in total Fannie/Freddie business over that period. Conforming-jumbo loans accounted for 9.6 percent of total GSE business on single-unit properties in the first half of this year, compared to 7.1 percent for the first six months of 2014.

ARM MBS production by Fannie and Freddie in the first half of 2015 was down 20.1 percent from a year ago.

Heavy refinance activity in the first half of 2015 caused a significant shift in the kinds of single-family MBS produced by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. Issuance of MBS backed by adjustable-rate mortgages has dropped sharply in 2015, and ARMs haven’t had much of a presence for years. ARM MBS production by Fannie and Freddie in the first half of 2015 was down 20.1 percent from a year ago. The drop in Ginnie ARM securitization was less severe, 18.3 percent, but ARMs accounted for an even smaller share of overall production (1.7 percent) at Ginnie than the 2.9 percent share they had in government-sponsored enterprise MBS. Oddly, the heavy refinance market in the first half of 2015 did not appear...[Includes two data tables]

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims ordered the Department of the Treasury to release all discovery documents pertaining to the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week in connection with one of the shareholder lawsuits challenging the government’s seizure of earnings generated by the two government-sponsored enterprises. The ruling in Fairholme Funds v. The United States prevents the Treasury from withholding documents it argued are privileged and designated as “protected information.” The shareholders said...