“It’s nearly impossible to get the information to the right person to vote on it,” said Bill Moliski, a managing director at SG Capital and former managing director at Redwood Trust.

Comments made Wednesday by the Treasury Department’s point man on GSE reform, Michael Stegman, did not go unnoticed by employees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Urban Institute said that new FHA loan limits may have a limited impact overall, but they could have dire consequences for some minority neighborhoods. The study found that the most affected metropolitan statistical areas had two things in common: they have a high share of FHA-insured loans, and their loan limits have dropped significantly. Of the 35 most affected MSAs, 13 are predominantly minority neighborhoods, all in California. “Many of the most affected areas have...

Mortgage lenders may be suffering from compliance burnout these days after getting up to speed with major new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But they would do well to start preparing now for the bureau’s revolutionary integrated mortgage disclosure rule that aims to change the way consumers shop for such loans and how lenders go about originating them. “The integration of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act mortgage disclosures has been a goal almost since the time the two statutes were issued, and certainly from the time the good-faith estimate began focusing on loan terms,” Benjamin Olson, counsel at BuckleySandler, said during a webinar sponsored this week by Inside Mortgage Finance. The new disclosures become mandatory Aug. 1, 2015. Joseph Kolar, a partner with BuckleySandler, pointed...

Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury Department on housing-finance policy, said this week that legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises is a top priority for the Obama administration. However, industry analysts suggest that Congress is unlikely to pass such legislation anytime soon, leaving the Federal Housing Finance Agency as the driver of GSE reform. “Indefinitely continuing a taxpayer-backed duopoly is neither sustainable nor sensible public policy,” Stegman said this week at the ABS Vegas conference sponsored by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network. He pushed...

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveil their fourth-quarter 2013 results in February, the two government-sponsored enterprises are expected to again report strong earnings driven by: higher guaranty fee income, one-time gains tied to legal settlements, and a boost from lower loan-loss reserves. But most of the money will be swept straight into the U.S. Treasury. One of the major factors in the GSEs’ huge 2013 earnings so far – the release of deferred tax assets – will likely be...

Speculators in Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac junior preferred shares will benefit if they can prove loan loss reserves at the two were over-stated.

The integration of TILA and RESPA has "been a goal almost since the time the two statutes were issued, and certainly from the time the good-faith estimate began focusing on loan terms,” said Benjamin Olson of BuckleySandler.

The non-agency MBS market is stuck in "limbo until we know where the GSEs are going,” said Steve Abrahams, head of securitization and MBS research at Deutsche Bank Securities.

In other words, the White House still wants to dismantle Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and doesn't seem to care about all the money the two are returning to the government.