Add this to the mortgage banker worry-list: the FHFA is once again toying with the idea of changing the minimum servicing fee on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.
Look for lawmakers during the 113th Congress to bring considerable attention and legislative effort to bear regarding the future of housing and mortgage finance, but reform and resolution of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are far from the top of the priority lists of the two major committees with purview over the GSEs. This week, the House Financial Services Committee in the Republican-held House and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee of the Democrat-majority Senate issued their respective agendas for the 2013-2014 session. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, said the Banking Committee will “continue to seek bipartisan consensus” on a new structure for housing finance.
Democrat detractors of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s acting director may yet again see their desires to oust him denied amid bitter partisan wrangling over top-level Cabinet nominees and a possible dearth of replacements that are both confirmable and willing.Late last week, some 45 House Democrats called on President Obama yet again to take action and nominate a permanent replacement for FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco. Democrats have spent well over a year both trying to get the Bush-era holdover fired and get him to play ball with them on their housing agenda, foremost being Dems’ desired proposal to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offer principal reduction assistance to troubled borrowers.
The Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has produced and posted his own video that serves as part introduction and part public outreach for tips about potential waste, fraud or abuse at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. Located on the home page of the agency’s website – fhfaoig.gov – and titled “Welcome Video for FHFA-OIG,” the 2½ minute video, of unmistakably modest production value, features Inspector General Steve Linick speaking directly to the camera with an American flag mural in the background.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has tabled – for now – a plan being pushed by Fannie Mae to lower force-placed insurance rates by as much as 30 percent, bringing in a group of insurance firms that are not traditional players in the market, industry officials who were briefed on the matter said. These officials, speaking under the condition their names not be published, said Fannie Executive Vice President Terry Edwards was heavily pushing the plan, but in the end the FHFA decided to delay action and set up a study group to look into the matter further. The names of the insurers that Fannie was working with were not released.
While Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s conservator deliberates whether or when to roll out its proposed state-level guaranty fee increase, industry observers say that the Federal Housing Finance Agency has plotted a course for significant, if gradual, g-fee hikes for the two GSEs. Last summer, the Finance Agency announced a 10 basis point rise in g-fees on single-family mortgages effective Nov. 1, 2012, for government-sponsored enterprise loans sold for cash and starting Dec. 1 for GSE loans exchanged for MBS. The November/December guaranty fee increase follows a similar 10bp hike the two GSEs implemented on April 1, 2012.
Although the behemoths of the mortgage banking industry continued to dominate sales to the GSEs in 2012, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw significantly more business from lenders outside the top tier, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. For all of 2012, the top five sellers accounted for 48.9 percent of single-family mortgages sold to Fannie and Freddie, a substantial decline from the 58.0 percent aggregate market share of the top five sellers back in 2011.
Fannie Mae announced last week that the company’s top finance executive will “retire from the company” by this summer, marking another top executive departure from the GSE. Susan McFarland, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will transition out of the company by no later than June 30 following the appointment of a new CFO, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The filing did not name a successor.
Two Democrat Senators have re-introduced their refinance bill that would authorize a one-year extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program while easing other qualifying criteria for HARP borrowers. Dubbed HARP 3.0 in some quarters, the Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act of 2013, the bill by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, -- co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, -- would expand HARP eligibility by providing equal access to streamlined refinancing under HARP, waive loan-to-value ratio requirements and prohibit Fannie and Freddie from charging upfront fees to refi any loan they guarantee. The new draft of the Menendez-Boxer, S. 249, includes a few technical corrections and would extend HARP for an additional 12 months beyond its scheduled expiration of Dec. 31, 2013.
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