Industry observers are lauding the passage of an amendment in the Senate’s proposed budget to curtail the use of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s guaranty fees to pay for unrelated spending.By a vote of 50 to 49 last weekend, the Senate passed its fiscal 2014 budget resolution. An amendment making it more difficult to tap fees charged by the government-sponsored enterprises was offered by Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Minority Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, and approved by unanimous consent.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this week introduced another new, simplified loan modification program designed to help troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes at a time when loss mitigation activity by the two government-sponsored enterprises appears to be losing steam. (Includes one data chart)

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week sought comment on a proposal that would bar servicers from participating in lender-placed insurance through reinsurance or from receiving any commission or fee for placing or maintaining such type of insurance on mortgages.

Most Freddie Mac servicers are not complying with reporting requirements that seek to catch servicing fraud and regulatory violations, a mandate that falls under the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Servicing Alignment Initiative, according to a new audit. The FHFA Inspector General separately slammed the regulator for failing to “thoroughly oversee” how the two government-sponsored enterprises monitor their seller/servicers’ compliance with contractual agreements.

Try as they might, the government cannot keep a good MI program down. FHA endorsements rose almost 19 percent in January.

Residential loan production for 2013 may turn out to be better than originally projected, thanks to a vastly improved purchase-money business.

Interest-only lending picked up steam in 2012 despite new regulations that make the loans less attractive from a 'qualified mortgage' point of view.

Holding fixed-rate mortgages in portfolio was considered a dangerous practice for depositories, but no more.

The FHLB's MPF Xtra program – an alternative to the legacy Mortgage Partnership Finance program – saw volumes spike to $6.9 billion in 2012.

As part of the budget, an amendment passed the Senate that would prevent any hike in g-fees for non-housing issues.