“As expected, we don’t believe any mortgages have been sold out of trusts to the city of Richmond,” said Tom Deutsch, executive director of the American Securitization Forum.

Equifax has enhanced its “retro income verification service,” known as “Point In Time.”

Mini-correspondent lending is hot, but wholesale may be on the decline. Surprise: RE/MAX files to go public.

At June 30, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had a combined $5.78 billion in outstanding repurchase demands, a 17 percent decline from the first quarter.

The CFPB is sharing with industry what examiners will look for when assessing the ability-to-repay, qualified mortgage and other key rules.

Plans by officials of the city of Richmond, CA, to make a controversial use of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages, rework their terms and stiff MBS investors for the resulting losses suffered two major blows in recent days as two federal regulatory agencies that play a critical role in the nation’s mortgage finance system intensified their opposition. This week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in response to a joint inquiry by three California Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, said it cannot guarantee that any mortgage seized through eminent domain would be approved for an FHA-insured refinance – a central pillar in the eminent domain proposal developed by Mortgage Resolution Partners. “Pending legal developments and possible further execution of the plans in question, HUD does not know...

Fitch Ratings recently updated its criteria for estimating losses on residential MBS transactions, introducing three new variables that influence default expectations, including the origination channel. Fitch said it has determined that loans originated through a direct retail channel have a lower default risk than those originated through brokers or correspondents. To account for this risk, the rating agency is now assigning a higher default probability to loans originated through non-retail channels. This newly added variable is applied...

Although additional defendants sued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency are expected to sooner or later cut deals to settle fraud charges over the sale of non-agency MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, banks with larger exposures may calculate that their best bet is to let it play out in court, according to a new report by Fitch Ratings. Fitch noted that the FHFA’s announcement last month that UBS Americas will pay some $885 million to settle claims concerning MBS that UBS sold to the two government-sponsored enterprises is a significant event as other defendants crunch the numbers before deciding whether to proceed with a lengthy and expensive trial or to cut their losses. “Although not necessarily setting a formal precedent, the high settlement costs to UBS relative to the outstanding portfolio amount could lead...

Fannie Mae will lower its maximum LTV. Mortgage insurance firms are not happy. Meanwhile, NAMB blames shrinking application volumes on summer vacations.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are eliminating or tweaking certain servicing initiatives, the two GSEs announced last week in separate bulletins. Effective Aug.1, the two enterprises have eliminated the complete Borrower Response Package and Delinquency Improvement Performance Standard, and the related incentive and compensatory fee structure.