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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ...

Overlooking investor overlays in mortgage loan underwriting can be quite costly and could expose lenders to regulatory risk and liability. iServe Residential Lending, a retail mortgage banker in San Diego, believes it has found the ultimate solution to its underwriting problems, especially with regards to investor overlays, including FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. iServe, which originates conventional, government and jumbo loans, recently implemented PriceMyLoan, an automated underwriting and loan pricing tool from Insight Lending Solutions, the same folks who created TOTAL Scorecard for FHA. “PriceMyLoan is the only system that...

The loss mitigation flexibilities enjoyed by banks and thrifts servicing mortgages held in portfolio have not led to markedly stronger performance compared with mods allowed by the more stringent government-sponsored enterprises. New data released this month by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision suggest that portfolio servicers’ emphasis on principal reduction has had limited benefits on overall mod performance. Banks and thrifts serviced $1.69 trillion in portfolio mortgages at the end of the first quarter of 2011, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. The portfolio holdings were down by ... [contains one data chart]

The Obama administration and Fannie Mae are requiring mortgage servicers to participate in special foreclosure prevention programs that extend forbearance periods for unemployed homeowners from 12 to 24 months to help them avoid foreclosure while seeking re-employment. The current unemployment forbearance programs have mandatory periods that are inadequate for most unemployed borrowers, said Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. The FHA will extend the forbearance period for unemployed homeowners to 12 months. Servicers participating in the Making Home Affordable Program may also be directed to extend the minimum forbearance period to...