Senate Democrats would like to see the Federal Housing Finance Agency loosen even further the refinancing restrictions on GSE mortgages and they’ve got a couple of pointers on how to make it so. Last week, Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Tim Johnson, SD, wrote FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco to encourage the Finance Agency to take the Home Affordable Refinance Program beyond HARP 2.0.

Three former Fannie Mae executives, including the company’s one-time CEO, have petitioned a federal judge to toss the securities fraud case the government filed against them late last year. Filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the motion to dismiss contends the Securities and Exchange Commission is thin on proof that the GSE, at the direction of the then top executives, failed to disclose to investors the companies’ exposure to subprime mortgages prior to the 2008 housing market crash.

Roughly one out of every 14 banks in the country suffered significant investment losses following the September 2008 government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a new Federal Reserve discussion paper. The paper, When Good Investments Go Bad: The Constriction in Community Bank Lending After the 2008 GSE Takeover, details how financial institutions took a bath when the two companies were placed into conservatorship and dividend payments on common and preferred shares were suspended.

If mortgage lending profitability was directly correlated to an ability to respond satisfactorily to borrower complaints, a lot of mortgage bankers might be looking for a new line of work. In 768 cases (46.7 percent) initially tracked by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, mortgage lenders reported they closed a consumer complaint without providing any relief whatsoever, according to the bureau’s first semi-annual report to Congress, submitted to the House Financial Services Committee last week. Credit card gripes, on the other hand, were closed without any reported relief in 27.7 percent of the...

Certain watchdog agencies of the federal government have expressed concern to Congress about whether additional steps already taken by the FHA and Ginnie Mae to improve their risk management are sufficient to avert potential government intervention. A recent study by the General Accountability Office and testimony by Department of Housing and Urban Development Inspector General David Montoya before a House panel have raised questions about the financial stability of the FHA and Ginnie Mae and their ability to respond to a major financial crisis. Both the GAO and Montoya concluded that the two agencies...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should assume “a more active role” in its management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and has not been sufficiently proactive in its enforcement and oversight of the two government-sponsored enterprises, according to the FHFA Inspector General. “FHFA’s role as conservator has evolved over time,” the IG said. At the outset of the conservatorships, FHFA forbade the enterprises from engaging in certain activities and retained approval authority over others,” said the OIG report. “Soon thereafter, FHFA delegated day-to-day operational decision making to the...

Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh reassured participants at an interagency conference on the Community Reinvestment Act last week that the enforcement orders federal bank regulators issued last year and the state attorneys general national mortgage settlement will work well together. “I’ve said from the beginning that it is not only possible, but absolutely necessary, that our separate actions be able to work well together. And I think we’ve succeeded in that,” Walsh said. “The steps we have each required servicers to take to fix the problems in servicing and foreclosure processing ...

Ginnie Mae has seen a huge increase in business volume and appears to have adequate reserves, but the agency is still hamstrung by the federal budget process and has work to do to improve its risk management, according to a new Government Accounting Office report. With $1.186 trillion in single-family MBS outstanding and $301.7 billion in new issuance just last year, Ginnie is nearly as big as Freddie Mac – minus the retained portfolio. But the agency has a relatively small staff of full-time employees and has to get around the federal budget process by using business revenues to hire...

A Texas-based mortgage lender that recently lost its approval to originate and underwrite FHA loans sued in state court to compel the Department of Housing and Urban Development to withdraw an announcement of the enforcement action. AmericanHomeKey filed the complaint in Dallas County Court to force the withdrawal of a March 23 HUD press release announcing the immediate and permanent revocation of the lender’s FHA authority to originate, underwrite and close new mortgages with FHA insurance. The lender said a premature announcement would ruin its relationship with investors and result in massive losses. The HUD Mortgagee Review Board announced ...

The mortgage industry told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the recent state attorneys general settlement contains a robust set of consumer protections that ought to be used as the framework for developing national servicing standards. However, industry representatives expressed concern that such an initiative could create additional barriers to entry to the servicing business. “First and foremost, the AG settlement will provide substantial relief to homeowners and will establish significant new homeowner protections for the future,” the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a recent...