The number of loans repurchased by lenders from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell sharply during the second quarter from the record level set during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of repurchase disclosures by the two government-sponsored enterprises. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the two GSEs reported a total of $2.81 billion of mortgage repurchases during the second quarter, down 78.7 percent from the first quarter of 2013. GSE buybacks hit a record $13.21 billion in the first three months of 2013 as Fannie and Bank of America resolved their dispute over legacy loans sold to the GSE by Countrywide Financial. The settlement also helped wipe out...[Includes one data chart]

A federal district court judge in Manhattan this week rejected Wells Fargo’s plea to dismiss a lawsuit alleging it lied about the quality of home loans submitted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for FHA insurance over a 10-year period. District Court Judge Jesse Furman allowed government claims under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 to proceed but ruled that legal injury claims based on events that transpired before June 2009 were time-barred and that the government had waited too long to file a lawsuit. The judge also threw out claims of negligence and unjust enrichment. The government filed...

David Akre of Five Oaks projects that in a few years, issuance of non-agency jumbo MBS could reach $300 billion annually.

The MBS lawsuits target Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Residential Funding Securities, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Wachovia.

Fannie Mae seller/servicers also can dodge the maintenance fee if they have $25 million in Fannie servicing or paid $5,000 in technology fees.

A new audit of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is due in October and speculation about its cash reserves is not good.

Citadel Servicing CEO Dan Perl said "the phones are ringing like a son-of-a-gun" at his nonprime lending shop.

Loan officers, so far, have been spared the layoff carnage, but that may change depending on where volumes wind up.

Banking regulators believe delinquency rates on HELOCs soon may rise sharply upward as a significant number of second liens reach the end of their draw period.

HUD declined to discuss the contents of the proposed standards or indicate a timetable for a final QM rule.