Fannie Mae and JPMorgan Chase announced this week they are collaborating in a new risk-sharing vehicle that features recourse provided to the GSE on nearly $1 billion of new Chase originations.Separately, Freddie Mac has priced two more Structured Agency Credit Risk Transactions. JPMorgan Madison Avenue Securities Trust 2014-1 will simulate the behavior of a $989 million pool of JPMorgan-originated mortgages delivered into Fannie-guaranteed MBS.

The Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing tapering will put a dent in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranty fee revenues, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Inspector General. The evaluation report issued by the IG last week concluded that as the central bank pulls back from the mortgage-backed securities market, interest rates will drift higher and the GSEs will do less business, meaning declining g-fee revenue.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has formally called upon the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s official watchdog to reconsider some of its proposals meant to prevent the next multi-billion dollar fraud scheme against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a letter dispatched to the FHFA’s Inspector General late last week, the MBA cited its opposition to certain recommendations the IG made to the Finance Agency in its August post-mortem on the swindle perpetrated by the now-defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage.

Modified Freddie Mac mortgages performed better than Fannie Mae loans more than two years after modification as the performance gap between the two GSE closed slowly, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OCC’s latest Mortgage Metrics Report noted that Freddie loans had a 15.5 percent re-default rate six months after modification, while Fannie mods saw a 16.2 percent rate.At the 12-month mark, Freddie stood at 21.9 percent compared to Fannie’s 23.2 percent.

Together, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September posted a combined increase in the volume of single-family mortgages securitized, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie issued $64.1 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities in September, a 4.9 percent increase from August. However, September’s MBS issuance was down 56.7 percent on a year-to-date basis.

FHFA’s Watt Promises a CEO for the CSP by Year-end. After a year of searching for a chief executive to lead Common Securitization Solutions, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is getting closer to picking a candidate for the job. Speaking at the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association in Las Vegas last week, FHFA Director Mel Watt promised the industry that a CEO would be named by Dec. 31. The FHFA’s search firm is Spencer Stuart.

Top mortgage sellers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be focusing even more on lower-risk mortgages, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level mortgage-backed securities data. Some 62.9 percent of loans delivered in the third quarter had credit scores of 740 or above, up from 61.9 percent in the second quarter and 60.5 percent in the first three months of the year. The data exclude mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding ... [Includes one data chart]

Wells Fargo's origination market share keeps dropping, but is still more than double that of its closest competitor, JPMorgan Chase.

When rates take a noticeable dive – as they have the past few weeks – mortgage lenders contemplating a sale sometimes have a change of heart, opting to ride the new production wave. But this time around, that doesn’t appear to be the case. “Most every lender I speak to understands this to be a very temporary event prior to a relatively cold and uncertain winter,” said M&A advisor Rick Roque of Menlo Company. Over the past two months, Inside Mortgage Finance has found 10 publicly announced M&A transactions with several more likely signed that weren’t disclosed. Roque, who’s working on several deals, said...

2014 is going to go down as the worst year in new mortgage origination volume since the turn of the century, but it’s clearly not as bad as many have feared. Mortgage lenders produced an estimated $335 billion in new single-family loans during the third quarter, a solid 9.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new Inside MortgageFinance ranking and analysis. Significantly, the first and second quarters of this year were...[Includes two data charts]