The massive legal action initiated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency last year on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac against many of the nation’s biggest lenders is getting ready to face its first legal challenge, and the federal judge’s ruling will determine the scope and direction of the cases, experts say. The FHFA lawsuits seek tens of billions of dollars in damages for losses incurred by Fannie and Freddie on purchases of approximately $200 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities.

A bill proposed by a ranking Senate Democrat would permit underwater borrowers, including those with Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, to reduce their loan principal through a federal shared mortgage-appreciation program. The Preserving American Homeownership Act, S. 2093, would establish a program through which the banks would write down the principal balance of a mortgage to 95 percent of the re-assessed value of the home.

A bill filed in the Senate earlier this month would authorize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. member banks, to enter into long-term leases to permit families to stay in their homes while also easing the pressure of unsold foreclosure inventory on the housing market. The Home Act, S. 2080, sponsored by Sen. Dean Heller, R-NV, would afford banks and the GSEs the option of leasing their real estate-owned (REO) properties for up to five years, with the additional prospect of selling the house to the renter once the rental lease runs out.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have made far fewer repurchase demands on loans sold to the GSEs over the past three years, but their regulator says the enterprises will continue to push lenders to buy back defective loans. A new Inside the GSEs analysis of repurchase activity by the GSEs reveals that the share of loans subject to buyback demands slowed to a trickle in 2009, when just 0.25 percent of mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie and Freddie were subject to such requests.

A Federal Home Loan Bank may base its calculation of tangible capital for an insurance company member on financial statements prepared using statutory accounting principles for purposes of applying regulatory limits to members’ access to advances, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA’s regulatory interpretation, issued earlier this month, would permit the use of SAP-based financial statements under certain conditions if the Bank’s insurance company member does not otherwise prepare financial statements based on generally accepted accounting principles.

In a mortgage market still dominated by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and government-insured lending, the non-agency jumbo sector stood out as the only one to show year-over-year growth in 2011, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Jumbo mortgage originations rose 13.5 percent from 2010 to 2011, while overall production was down 17.2 percent from the year before. The $118 billion of non-agency jumbo originations in 2011 represented the biggest annual output since the market collapsed in 2008 and agency loan limits were jacked dramatically...(Includes two data charts)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have asked lenders to repurchase some $76.4 billion of mortgages under representations and warranties provisions in their contracts, although a significant volume of these demands ended up being withdrawn by the two government-sponsored enterprises. A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of reps and warranties disclosures made by Fannie and Freddie shows that 37.3 percent of the buyback demands made by the GSEs over the years ended up being withdrawn. Fannie, Freddie and other mortgage securitizers are now required to file reps and warranties...(Includes one data chart)

With Congress unlikely to move major mortgage finance reform any time soon, the Federal Housing Finance Agency this week outlined its “strategic plan” to use the next phase of the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to build a new mortgage securitization infrastructure. The plan’s roll out comes one year and one week after the Obama administration proposed three potential options to shut down Fannie and Freddie within 10 years. No significant action has been taken since, although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently noted that the White House expects to provide more details of its...

Most major servicers reported increases in mortgage delinquency rates during the fourth quarter of 2011, but some industry data suggest seasonal factors influenced the increase. According to the Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index, 10.88 percent of loans serviced by 19 major companies were in some stage of default at the end of 2011. That was up from 10.70 percent at the end of September and marked the fourth consecutive increase in the index. The biggest increase was in the serious default category, loans 90 days or more past due but not yet in foreclosure. Some 3.27...(Includes one data chart)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s first official budget – which will be funded by the Federal Reserve – segregates expenditures into three buckets, the lion’s share of which will go to the supervision, enforcement, fair lending and equal opportunity account. Outlays within this category are set to out-step the other two categories combined. After spending about $60 million in fiscal 2011, this SEFLEO bucket is set to climb to about $214 million for 2012 and $261 million next year. Consumer-related expenditures totaled $43 million in 2011 and are projected to roughly double ...