Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of all purchase loans funded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a debt-to-income ratio greater than the qualified mortgage limit of 43 percent, according to the February 2014 National Mortgage Risk Index released by the conservative American Enterprise Institute’s International Center on Housing Risk. Researchers found no discernible impact on the purchase loan market from the CFPB’s QM regulation.“In February, half of agency loans had a down payment of 5 percent or less, nearly one-in-four agency loans had a DTI ratio greater than 43 percent, and one-in-eight agency loans had a FICO score of less than 660,” the AEI said.

The CFPB issued its first Freedom of Information Act report last week, finding that the bureau’s average response time for all simple “processed perfected requests” was 8.36 days with virtually no backlog.The average response time for complex requests was 31 days. The bureau defines a “processed perfected request” as “a request for records which reasonably describes such records and is made in accordance with published rules stating the time, place, fees (if any) and procedures to be followed,” and for which the bureau has taken final action in every respect.

The CFPB and five other federal financial regulators issued a proposed rule last week that would implement minimum requirements for state registration and supervision of appraisal management companies. The minimum requirements would apply to states that voluntarily elect to establish an appraiser certifying and licensing agency with the authority to register and supervise AMCs. Under the proposed rule, participating states would require that an AMC register in the state and be subject to its supervision, and use only state-certified or licensed appraisers for federally related transactions, such as real estate-related financial transactions overseen by a federal financial institution regulatory agency that require appraiser services.

The private equity plaintiffs allege that the Treasury’s change in the dividend structure of its preferred stock leaves the GSEs with no funds to pay anything to junior shareholders.

Agreeing to speak only on background, some mortgage participants thought that ORI’s recapitalization plan raised serious concerns among potential investors.

The serious delinquency rate on servicer portfolios hasn’t improved much in the past year, from 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.

With just one accord this week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency more than doubled the amount it has recovered on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from issuers and underwriters that sold subprime and Alt A MBS to the government-sponsored enterprises. Bank of America agreed to a $9.3 billion settlement that covers its own dealings as well as those of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch, which it acquired in 2008. The agreement covers some $57 billion of MBS issued or underwritten by these firms. BofA did not admit...[Includes one data chart]

Issuers of MBS and ABS are concerned about new liabilities they are likely to face if they have to disclose loan-level information at issuance under a rule recently proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In February, the SEC proposed requiring issuers to disclose loan-level data to investors on issuers’ own websites instead of on the Electronic Data-Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, better known as EDGAR, the current platform for SEC-required disclosures. The comment period on the proposal was scheduled to close March 28. Preliminary comment letters submitted...

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, this week unveiled a mortgage-finance reform bill that would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a private cooperatively-owned entity that would issue a new form of conventional MBS backed by a mix of public and government credit support. The “Housing Opportunities Move the Economy Forward Act” adds a few new twists to the notion of creating an explicit government MBS guaranty that would stand behind a first-loss position funded by the private sector. Rather than allow a variety of private-sector firms to issue these securities, as the bipartisan Senate bill would, Waters’ proposal would create a single, cooperatively-owned entity that would be open to all lenders. The regulator of this new market, the National Mortgage Finance Administration, would have...

Fannie Mae this week released its STAR servicer rankings and hopefully a copy found its way to all those pesky regulators who think nonbank servicers can’t tell the difference between a debit and a credit.