As FHA tightens its underwriting further to give more room for private capital in the mortgage market, the federal single-family mortgage insurance program may no longer provide mortgage alternatives for as many “non-qualified residential mortgage” borrowers as it would have in the past, according to a new report issued by the Government Accountability Office. Analyzing the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act on homeowners and the mortgage market, the GAO report concludes that potential changes in the FHA’s role could influence ...

Fannie Mae this week released a revised prospectus for its single-family MBS program that updates language on non-standard collection options such as biweekly payment plans, certain hybrid ARM pools and loan eligibility. The government-sponsored enterprise also expanded its discussion of representations and warranties provisions affecting its single-family MBS. In addition to requiring sellers to repurchase mortgages that breach the reps and warranties, Fannie said it is important for investors to consider that there are other mandatory and optional cases where loans may be ...

Hedging will become much more expensive for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks than for anyone else as proposed new rules on the margining of uncleared derivatives will significantly increase the cost of trading, the GSEs warned federal regulators.GSEs regulated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency weighed in via comment letters on the rules proposed in April by the FHFA, as well as the Federal Reserve, the Farm Credit Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

A coalition of six Federal Home Loan Banks has gone to court seeking formal standing as investors in the proposed $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over mortgage-backed securities even as court papers reveal investors could be owed a sum three times greater than the current BofA proposal.The Federal Home Loan Banks of Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Seattle together own certificates in 73 of the trusts that are part of the proposed settlement for which they paid more than $8.8 billion.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago recently announced that the nonprofit lender and real estate consultant IFF has joined the Bank as a member.Formerly known as the Illinois Facilities Fund, IFF is the first community development financial institution to join the FHLBank of Chicago and only the sixth CDFI nationally to become part of the FHLBank system.

Two House lawmakers, one Republican and one Democrat, have introduced a bill that would postpone a planned reduction of the high-cost loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA due to take effect this fall.Late last week, Reps. John Campbell, R-CA, and Gary Ackerman, D-NY, filed H.R. 2508, the Conforming Loan Limits Extension Act, which would mandate a two-year extension to keep conforming loan limits at 2008 levels.

California continues to be the top source of new single-family mortgages for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac even as Fannie remains the dominant GSE in terms of production through the first half of the year, according to an upcoming special report, GSE Market Profile: First Half 2011 by Inside Mortgage Finance Publications.

Following contentious debate at times with Democrats, House Republicans last week advanced another installment of six narrow bills that would further curtail GSE activities or increase oversight while in conservatorship.The mark-up by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and GSEs brings the total number of GOP-backed bills to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac awaiting the full committee’s consideration up to 14 so far.

Freddie Mac’s top lawyer is leaving the GSE after five years to join the law firm of SRN Denton as co-chair of the firm’s global Financial Institutions and Funds sector.

A bill that would limit the payment of legal fees for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives accused of fraud has been sent back to the drawing board for some additional tweaking.