Final PMIERS Rule Expected in 1Q15. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has revised its timeline for publishing a final version of the Private Mortgage Insurance Eligibility Requirements, which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proposed in July at the direction of the FHFA. The PMIERS will establish capital and other requirements for private mortgage insurers. In a statement, industry trade group U.S. Mortgage Insurers said it has received word from the agency that the final PMIERS would not be published until at least late in the first quarter of 2015. The FHFA initially indicated that a final rule would be issued by yearend 2014. The USMI reiterated its support for an updated PMIERS. Mortgage Executives Concerned About G-Fee Increase. A survey of mortgage executives at this year’s Mortgage Bankers Association annual conference found 53 percent saying that ...

The Obama administration noted this week that it is less than keen on the idea of taking up an outgoing Democrat senator’s call to end the six-plus year conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Last week, Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, suggested the GSEs’ conservatorship be ended if legislative reform is not forthcoming.

Fewer than 100 financial institutions could be adversely affected by a proposed Federal Housing Finance Agency rule to tweak membership criteria for the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, the agency’s head told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee last week. In his first oversight hearing appearance since assuming office in January, FHFA Director Mel Watt said the agency’s “preliminary review” has found of the 7,500 FHLBank member institutions less than 100 may potentially be negatively impacted.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week unveiled a policy alteration that would potentially allow a foreclosed homeowner to purchase a home – including one he/she lost due to arrears – from the real estate owned inventory of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The change will permit Fannie and Freddie to sell existing REO properties to any qualified purchaser at the property’s fair-market value, as determined by the GSE, according to the FHFA.

Wells Fargo and the Department of Justice are reportedly at an impasse in their settlement talks in connection with a lawsuit accusing the bank of improper underwriting and false certification of certain FHA-insured loans. In an e-mailed statement to Inside FHA Lending, a bank spokesperson said Wells Fargo’s good faith effort to work with the federal government to resolve the complaint “has not yet resulted in a settlement.” Nonetheless, the bank “will move forward with presenting [its] case in support of [its] prudent and responsible FHA lending practices, which have produced high-quality FHA loans with delinquency rates that are half the industry average,” the spokesperson added. This week, citing an unidentified source, Bloomberg reported that lawyers for the government and the bank have told the presiding judge in the case that they ...

Thousands of military veterans in high-cost areas may be deprived of VA’s home-loan guarantee benefits unless Congress extends the current VA loan limits before the end of the year. Those loan limits expire on Dec. 31, 2014. The VA loan limits are based on median home values estimated by the FHA, providing loans up to 125 percent of local area median price. The program does not set a cap on how much a veteran can borrow to finance a home purchase but it does limit the maximum amount it can guarantee to 25 percent of the current loan limit. Veteran and industry groups are urging Congress to make the VA limits permanent. A VA spokesperson said the agency was not asked for a position on the issue since Congress did not put forward any bill in any of the hearings this year. “But as a general rule, VA wants to maximize the opportunities ...

Ginnie Mae is seeking comment on several proposed data collections, including those that would strengthen the agency’s ability to monitor participants in its mortgage-backed securities programs. Due to its growing concern over the influx of non-depository issuers into the single-family MBS program, Ginnie has proposed to collect more loan-level data to supplement the information already being collected and reported on a monthly basis. The proposed data collection consists of bankruptcy-related information (action type, case identifier, chapter type, bar date) as well as borrower-related information (borrower bankruptcy indicator, classification type, total mortgaged properties, counseling initiated indicator and credit score date). Other proposed new data include document custodian ID, type of insurance claim coverage, investor unpaid principal balance (UPB), adjustment to ...

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt will be on the hot seat next week when he is slated to testify before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. The oversight hearing – titled “The Federal Housing Finance Agency: Balancing Stability, Growth, and Affordability in the Mortgage Market” has Watt listed as the only witness when the committee convenes on Wed., Nov. 19, at 10 a.m.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to review “and if appropriate” adopt new validated credit score models and allow for the use of alternative methods of scoring. In a letter last week to FHFA Director Mel Watt, the MBA said that, through this action, the Finance Agency could directly increase the number of borrowers eligible for conventional mortgages.

Ohio Court Sides With Freddie in Pre-Crisis Shareholder Lawsuit. An Ohio federal court late last week tossed out a shareholder class action lawsuit that accused Freddie Mac of lying about its exposure to subprime loans prior to the 2008 financial crisis. The suit, filed in 2008 by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, claimed that Freddie artificially inflated the value of its common stock by making false public financial statements that obscured its subprime exposure.OPERS claimed it lost as much as $27.2 million as a result of Freddie’s alleged cover-up of its subprime exposure.