The House Financial Services Committee’s senior Democrat is drafting her own legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises as an alternative to a Republican bill that was rammed through committee earlier this summer but is stalled getting to the House floor. During a speech this week at a meeting of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, said she is seeking industry input for her bill that would be “quite different” from the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act, sponsored by Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. Waters said...

Will private mortgage insurance firms continue to steal market share from the FHA? It certainly looks that way.

Maxine Waters is working on a GSE reform bill that likely will garner strong industry support, unlike Rep. Hensarling's PATH Act.

With the deal, $5.3 billion in mortgage servicer advance ABS will have been issued this year, according to the rating service.

At an investor conference in New York this week, officials from Wells Fargo predicted that residential originations at the bank will fall 30 percent this quarter on a sequential basis.

A compare ratio north of 150 percent will land a lender on HUD’s watch list. A ratio greater than 200 percent could result in disciplinary action and potential loss of FHA approval.

It appears the House of Representatives is giving up on GSE reform this year. However, the Senate could move forward, even though passage is considered a long shot, at best.

Nonbanks are stepping up to the plate on agency MBS. Meanwhile, a handful of large "term" loans are being put together, allowing investors to finance MSRs.

If the Federal Housing Finance Agency lowers loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac next year, Redwood Trust says it is ready, willing and able to pick up the slack. “If that happens, Redwood will step up and fund those loans, no problem,” said Mike McMahon, managing director of the real estate investment trust, the most active jumbo MBS issuer in the non-agency market. The executive told Inside MBS & ABS that he’s certain that Redwood would have plenty of company as well. “There will be little or no disruption in the market,” he said. According to McMahon, in 2012 lenders produced...

The GSEs continued to see solid increases in purchase-mortgage business, which increased by almost 7 percent from July to August. It was the fifth straight monthly gain for the two.