New York regulators want to know whether the additional costs will be passed onto consumers. Ellie Mae is not commenting.

Why doesn’t the MBA, NAHB and National Association of Realtors just come out and say what they really mean, which is this: Leave Fannie and Freddie alone, return them to their shareholders and they’ll never buy another ALT A or subprime mortgage again.

Mortgage bankers have been complaining loudly about escalating compliance costs since the CFPB opened its doors in 2011. Some smaller nonbanks have cited those rising costs as one reason they might be forced to merge with better capitalized institutions.

“Watt will want to draw a line of demarcation between him and DeMarco,” said one source. “Going forward, I think we’ll see an emphasis on average credit scores funded and even servicing performance.”

One ad on the radio sounds like The 60 Plus Association is doing the Lord’s work for the pension funds of fire fighters and policemen. After all, public pensions owned GSE stock prior to the crash and lost a bundle.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has sent a draft 2014 Conservatorship Scorecard to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for review, but it remains unclear how different it will be from the GSE goals the FHFA set for last year. According to industry officials who have been briefed on the matter, the scorecard will likely be released by month’s end. The scorecard was the brainchild of former FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, who led the agency for more than four years before former Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, assumed a five-year term as the agency’s director in early January.

It’s only a matter of time before the remaining big bank defendants settle lawsuits filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency over billions in non-agency mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years leading up to the housing crisis, predicts a legal expert. Last week, 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.

Whether by legislation or by regulation, a group of House Democrats want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to give unemployed homeowners a break by issuing a foreclosure moratorium. Last month, Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-PA, filed H.R. 4255, the Stop Foreclosures Due to Congressional Dysfunction Act, which would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency to establish a six-month moratorium on GSE-guaranteed mortgages held by homeowners who have lost their emergency unemployment compensation “due to congressional inaction.” The bill requires that borrowers must have been in good standing prior to losing their unemployment benefits in order to be eligible for the temporary forbearance.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s oversight of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s pre-foreclosure inspection process can and should be enhanced by strengthening quality assurance and controls, according to a new audit by the agency’s Office of the Inspector General. The FHFA-OIG audit found potential fraud in property inspection reports ordered by the two GSEs. Among the findings: the property inspection reports – which are used for foreclosures – contained inaccurate information that conflicted with corresponding photographs.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac junior shareholders face an uphill battle in their lawsuits challenging the Treasury’s August 2012 “net worth sweep” that effectively allows Uncle Sam to confiscate all of the companies’ profits, warns a legal expert. Investors are challenging the amended agreements regarding the seniority of Fannie and Freddie preferred stock owned by the federal government over investors’ GSE preferred stocks. More than a dozen lawsuits filed against the government – led by hedge funds Perry Capital and Fairholme Capital Management – are pending in federal district court in Washington, DC, and in the Court of Federal Claims.