With the jumbo MBS market slow to rebound, Redwood Trust has put an increased emphasis on agency mortgages, its commercial mortgage business and risk-sharing transactions with the government-sponsored enterprises. On the residential side, Redwood has continued to work on issuing jumbo MBS, but the real estate investment trust usually finds better execution in whole-loan sales. Redwood obtained approval as a seller to the GSEs at the end of 2013 and completed $4.0 billion in conforming mortgage correspondent business last year. During the fourth quarter, Redwood delivered...

Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency has yet to tip its hand on where it might be headed regarding guaranty fees, most of the industry is betting on no change at all – or possibly a slight reduction, according to interviews conducted by Inside MBS & ABS over the past two weeks. Moreover, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac themselves are playing a key role in the decision-making process, at least that’s what Freddie CEO Donald Layton said recently. “Guaranty fees are...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reduced their combined mortgage investment portfolio by 13.7 percent last year by focusing on less-liquid assets. The two government-sponsored enterprises still had $821.7 billion of mortgages and MBS on their books at the end of the year. Freddie reported that it sold $16.5 billion of less-liquid assets such as unsecuritized mortgages, multifamily assets and non-agency MBS. At the end of the year, some 59 percent of its portfolio was designated as less liquid, down from 62 percent at the end of 2013. The Federal Housing Finance Agency in 2013 directed...[Includes one data chart]

After seeing what’s transpired at Nationstar, Owen and Walter the pass year, would Dan Gilbert (who owns Quicken Loans) and Stan Middleman (Freedom’s owner) ever ponder going public?...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported somewhat underwhelming results for the fourth quarter, thanks to huge hits they took from hedging losses tied to their holdings of derivatives. The reduced earnings highlighted the fact that although the two have been cash cows for the U.S. Treasury over the past two years, they aren’t bullet proof. During separate press briefings with the media, the CEOs of both firms spent a bit of time going over the hits they took on their derivatives, stressing that the interest rate swaps they use to hedge rate swings are essential and cut both ways. The message was clear: if mortgage rates had not fallen dramatically in December, their earnings would have been ... [with one exclusive chart] ...

The 12 Federal Home Loan Banks saw modest gains in net interest income in 2014, but other factors led to declines in total income, according to preliminary data released by the Office of Finance. The FHLBanks earned a combined $2.246 billion in net income last year, down 11.0 percent from 2013. Their fourth-quarter income, $550 million, was down 12.3 percent from the previous quarter. Results varied significantly among the FHLBanks, however. Chicago was the most profitable, reporting $392 million in net income for the year, up 14.3 percent from 2013. New York had $315 million in net income in 2014, up 3.3 percent from the previous year. The two steepest declines were at Indianapolis and Dallas, both of which saw [with one exclusive chart] ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employment numbers were relatively steady in the past year while expenses increased, according to a new analysis by Inside The GSEs. While staffing at Freddie has remained relatively level since the end of 2008, Fannie Mae has significantly boosted its employee count. As of the end of January, Fannie had approximately 7,600 personnel, including full-time and part-time employees, term employees and employees on leave, according to the latest annual report from the GSE. The employee count increased by 2.7 percent compared with January 2014. Fannie spent $1.32 billion on salaries and employee benefits in 2014, up 8.5 percent compared with 2013. Freddie had 4,957 full-time employees and 50 part-time employees as of Feb. 5, down ...

With it looking more likely that the GSEs could survive in some form, a critic of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has proposed changes he suggests would address most of the flaws he sees in the companies. Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said he offered the suggestions “in the spirit of lively debate.” He suggested that the federal government should open GSE charters to competition, allowing any firm that can meet the requirements to receive a GSE charter. Calabria said GSEs should have a capital requirement of at least 8.0 percent. Capital of 4.0 percent to 5.0 percent would have covered the losses Fannie and Freddie experienced in 2007, according ...

Remarks from the leadership of the GSEs and earnings-related disclosures suggest more sales of non-performing loans are in the cards this year. Freddie Mac is putting together its first NPL auction of 2015, CEO Don Layton said in a recent interview with IMFnews, an affiliated daily news service. Layton declined to provide any details, noting that the GSE has yet to make an official announcement on the coming sale. This past summer, Freddie sold $659 million of “deeply” delinquent loans from its investment portfolio. At the time, it marked a first for a GSE. Isaac Boltansky, an analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading, said, “GSE management’s commentary reinforces our view that the GSEs are moving slowly but surely towards ...

A series of court decisions have affirmed the supremacy of the executive branch of government in its regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the chagrin of private-equity investors seeking compensation in the wake of the financial crisis, according to a recent analysis by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Those recent court decisions confirm the fact that the two GSEs are “instrumentalities of the federal government and not private corporations,” Kroll analysts said. “While this reality may bother some equity investors – and rightly so – this is good news for bond investors,” they noted. For equity investors, the court decisions underscore the fact that the GSEs are “creatures of Congress,” the analysts pointed out. In contrast, private corporations are governed by ...