Less than six weeks into the tenure of the new Federal Housing Finance Agency head, the policy direction of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s regulator remains a mystery, much to the consternation of some industry observers. Since Mel Watt was sworn into a five-year term as FHFA director on Jan. 6, the former North Carolina Democrat congressman has made no public appearances or policy statements, except for canned comments attributed to him in routine FHFA announcements. “Everybody wants...

Fed chairman Janet Yellen told legislators: “I think it is really very important for Congress to put in place a new system to address GSE reform. I think we still have a system that has systemic risk."

The FHFA permitted Fannie Mae to continue without the ability to assess repurchase late fees because the GSE claimed the cost of setting up such a program could cost $5.4 million

Despite the news concerning a possible sale, PHH’s share price on Wednesday was trading up, but not by much. Its price is still more than $1 below its 52-week high of $26.76.

Worried that New York State regulators will throw a monkey-wrench into Ocwen’s mortgage servicing acquisition plans? Don’t be.

Still, purchase-mortgage originations fell sharply in the fourth quarter, dropping almost 23 percent from the previous period, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Although Flagstar led the pack, it was the only bank to rank among the top five sellers of brokered loans.

However, ARMs remain relatively rare in the MBS market. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized only $41.6 billion of ARMs for all of last year, about 2.7 percent of their total MBS production volume.

It appears that the Federal Housing Finance Agency has slowed its search for a chief executive and chairman to manage the fledgling common securitization platform, which is slated to be headquartered in Bethesda, MD. One former candidate for the CEO position told Inside The GSEs: “It’s pretty much turned into the mess I suspected it would a year ago.” Discussing the chairman position, he added: “They still haven’t come to terms on compensation for the person they want.”

The new judge presiding over Bank of America’s $8.5 billion settlement with MBS investors this week countermanded, for the moment, last week’s approval of the deal by her predecessor, giving a major opponent of the agreement another chance to argue against it. New York State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla agreed to delay approval of the deal until at least Feb. 19 to hear American International Group’s appeal. Last week, Justice Barbara Kapnick approved the settlement agreement, except for loan modification claims, as one of her last acts before she took a promotion to the state’s Appellate Division. BofA agreed...