Two California members of the House, one Republican, one Democrat, have introduced a bill to extend indefinitely high-cost loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA due to expire this fall.

A federal appeals court last week upheld a lower court ruling that shareholders of Freddie Mac cannot sue the former directors and officers of the GSE for losses following the government takeover of Freddie by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Mortgage servicers should already be in the process of preparing to implement Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's soon-to-be unveiled servicing requirements as the two GSEs work to roll out new rules in the coming weeks.

Lawmakers on a House subcommittee last week approved by a wide bipartisan margin a bill that would create a legislative framework for a covered bond market in the U.S. and, some critics contend, an unnecessary competitor to the Federal Home Loan Bank system.

Government housing policy and agencies played a much larger role in the housing crisis than initially believed, but a fresh look at the conclusions of two GSE critics has prompted a top JPMorgan Chase analyst to take the unusual step of issuing a public retraction.

A large investment portfolio intended to generate added earnings is inconsistent with the purposes of the Federal Home Loan Bank System and is a "misuse" of the system's preferential access to capital markets, the head of the FHLB’s regulator told Bank directors this week. [Includes one data chart.]

A bipartisan bill unveiled this week by two House members would overhaul the federal mortgage finance system to ensure private sector capital for homebuyers and capital requirements to protect taxpayers - without Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

U.S. banks are generally more liquid than Basel III liquidity standards would suggest thanks in large part to the treatment of banks' large portfolios of GSE-related securities, according to Fitch Ratings.

Peter Federico, Freddie Mac's executive vice president - Investments and Capital Markets, has tendered his resignation after more than two decades with the GSE.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to shrink their mortgage portfolios as required by government regulators during the first quarter of 2011 even as the two government-sponsored enterprises posted dramatically different earnings reports for the first three months of the year. Under the terms of the purchase agreement with the Treasury Department and under Federal Housing Finance Agency regulation, both Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage-related investments portfolio are subject to a cap that decreases by 10 percent each year until each portfolio reaches $250 billion. By Dec. 31, 2011, neither company will be able to hold an unpaid principal balance for mortgage-related investments that exceeds $729 billion. “FHFA has stated that we will not be a substantial buyer or seller of mortgages for... [Includes one data chart]