Residential Capital, a former subsidiary of Ally and currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, has asked the court for permission to sell an estimated $130 million in FHA-insured mortgage loans. ResCap made the request in a recent filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, which monitors and approves all of the beleaguered company’s activities and requests during bankruptcy. According to the company, its unsecured creditors have signed off on the prospective sale of the FHA loans although the court would still have to approve the request during a scheduled hearing on Jan. 16. ResCap sought bankruptcy protection on ...

Ginnie Mae guaranteed more than $109.7 billion in mortgage-backed securities in the fourth quarter of 2012, with Wells Fargo and Chase Home Finance accounting for nearly half of the issuance, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of issuer data. Ginnie Mae issuers securitized 9.1 percent more in government-backed mortgages in the fourth quarter than in the previous quarter while issuance was significantly higher year-over-year, rising a whopping 44.8 percent. Although the top five Ginnie Mae issuers combined for 56.6 percent of the quarter’s total Ginnie Mae MBS production (Wells and Chase were on top with a combined 45.8 percent market share), 10 lower-ranked issuers posted ... [1 chart]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2012 combined for the third biggest year ever in single-family mortgage-backed securities issuance, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and ranking. Together, the two government-sponsored enterprises pumped out a whopping $1.266 trillion in new single-family MBS last year, a 48.2 percent increase over their total production back in 2011. It marked the biggest annual output by the two GSEs since they set the all-time record of $1.912 trillion back in 2003. Last year’s total came up just short of the second biggest annual issuance on record – $1.270 trillion – set in 2002. Heavy refinance activity was...[Includes three data charts]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week spread a huge safety net under the agency mortgage market, ruling that loans deemed suitable for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA and the Veterans Administration will be “qualified mortgages” that provide strong protection against litigation for mortgage lenders. The CFPB’s long-awaited ability-to-repay final rule provides a safe harbor for loans that meet its QM definition and also are not considered “higher-priced mortgages” under an older Truth in Lending Act regulation promulgated by the Federal Reserve back in 2008. That rule classifies first mortgages as higher-priced if the annual percentage rate exceeds the average offered rate for comparable loans by 1.5 percentage points or more. Generally, the CFPB final rule defines...

Bank of America and Fannie Mae this week announced a multibillion dollar settlement of their longstanding dispute over outstanding and potential repurchase claims from the government-sponsored enterprise dating back through much of the last decade. The “comprehensive resolution” covers current and future repurchase obligations related to loans with an outstanding balance of $297 billion, as of Nov. 30, 2012, that were originated by Countrywide Financial and Bank of America and sold to Fannie from Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 31, 2008. BofA will make...

Expect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to roll out a national mortgage database this year, but experts say it remains to be seen how comprehensive or how secure the first-of-its-kind mega electronic information storehouse will be. This week, during a webinar sponsored by the Ballard Spahr law firm, experts from Ballard and Navigant Consulting agreed that the government’s commitment to develop an origination-to-foreclosure repository of mortgage data is a “daunting” task that will take much longer than a single calendar year to implement and refine. “I absolutely believe...

Fannie Mae is working on building an in-house unit to value mortgage servicing rights, according to industry officials who’ve been briefed on the GSE’s plans. However, it’s unclear at this point how far along Fannie is. A spokesman for the company declined to comment to Inside The GSEs about the matter. Officials familiar with the effort, including one former GSE executive, said Fannie is looking to value MSRs for two main reasons: to better judge counter-party risk on mortgage bankers that sell residential loans to the company, and perhaps to better value the asset because it may have plans to buy or finance servicing rights in the future.

Mortgage market observers say they are seeing a gradually building struggle by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to maintain its precarious balance between the FHFA’s congressionally-mandated roles as conservator to the GSEs and – indirectly – regulator of 65 percent of the mortgage market. Industry interests, meanwhile, continue to call for greater “transparency” surrounding Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-related decision making. Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the FHFA was created to succeed the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight as regulator to Fannie and Freddie as well as the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.

Citing a lack of any “specific credible evidence of actual violations” within its purview, the House Ethics Committee last week announced it has dropped its probe of alleged legislative influence pedaling related to Countrywide Financial’s “VIP Program.” In a statement dropped on Dec. 27, the committee said that although there was some evidence of mortgage loans made to House members and staffers through Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo's “Friends of Angelo” program, the allegations are either too dated or involve individuals no longer serving in the House.

The official watchdog of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has pointedly suggested that the GSE regulator direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine whether or by how much the two companies were swindled out of billions of dollars as a result of banks’ alleged manipulation of a key interest rate and then determine how to recoup those losses, in court if necessary. A recent unpublished memo by the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General urged the Finance Agency to prepare to file suit against the banks involved in setting the London Interbank Offered Rate after an analysis of the GSEs’ published financial statements and publicly available historical interest data concluded that Fannie and Freddie may have suffered more than $3 billion in losses due to LIBOR manipulation.