Lobbyists and analysts who track the market are unanimous on one key issue: GSE loan limits. From what we’re told, Watt will shelve any thought of lowering the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac mortgage limit in 2014.

A group of House Democratic lawmakers is warning the Federal Housing Finance Agency that prohibiting GSE access to municipalities that use eminent domain to restructure underwater mortgages would constitute illegal discrimination against minority homeowners. In a letter to FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, a group of 10 House Democrats led by Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison said Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s refusal to insure loans seized and rewritten via eminent domain would be illegal under the Fair Housing Act and violate credit discrimination laws.

The successor regulator to the Federal Housing Finance Agency should be immediately infused with the FHFA’s talent and resources upon inception rather than a potentially “confusing and inefficient “ five-year transition period where past and future regulators would co-exist, an FHFA official told lawmakers this week. Testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, FHFA General Counsel Alfred Pollard told senators that moving all employees to the new agency – or possibly renaming and empowering the FHFA as the proposed Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. – would avoid a potential brain drain.

JPMorgan Chase twice in as many weeks announced multi-billion dollar deals to settle legal disputes with numerous parties – including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency – involving residential mortgage-backed securities. This week, the Department of Justice, along with other federal and state agencies – including the Federal Housing Finance Agency – reached a $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan, which acknowledged making misrepresentations about billions of dollars in MBS sold…

Justice Department lawyers want to extract the largest possible penalty from Bank of America after a Charlotte, NC, jury found in October that its Countrywide Financial Corp. division committed fraud when it sold toxic mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, according to court papers filed earlier this month.In its successful civil suit against BofA, the DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission estimated that the two GSEs lost some $850 million from thousands of loans acquired through CFC’s “Hustle” program between August 2007 and May 2008. BofA acquired Countrywide in 2008 and is liable for the fraud.

Vantage Production LLC is trying to build compliance, suitability and accountability into the mortgage sales process – things that can help lenders comply with the daunting qualified-mortgage rule as they streamline their sales and marketing processes. The vendor says its Vantage Integrated Production (VIP), an enterprise-level customer-relationship management platform, enhances loan-officer productivity and increases sales while providing corporate control of compliance. This software-as-a-service ...

Mortgage industry officials note that the size and complexity of the disclosure rules and other regulations taking effect in January will cause huge operational and system challenges.

Mortgage lenders will have until Aug. 1, 2015, to implement the new integrated mortgage-disclosure forms and related rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week. The new forms will replace the existing federal disclosures under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act. Bureau officials hope they will help consumers better understand their options, choose the deal that’s best for them, and avoid costly surprises at closing. The new, three-page loan estimate form will be provided...

Private-equity firms such as Pershing Square Capital Management and Fairholme Funds are gobbling up the common and preferred shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a trend that may continue as long as the two stay profitable and Congress dithers with how to end their conservatorships. “There’s some value there,” said Brian Harris, a senior analyst with Moody’s Investors Service. “The hedge funds believe the two will continue to earn money.” Industry observers who closely follow the government-sponsored enterprises predict...

Increasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranty fees, as well as “incrementally” reducing the government-sponsored enterprises’ loan limits throughout the next decade, would save the government approximately $20 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In a report published last week, the CBO projected the budgetary savings that would occur under two proposals. “By CBO’s projections under current law, the mortgage guaranties that the GSEs issue from 2015 through 2023 will cost the federal government $22 billion,” noted the report. “That estimate reflects the subsidies inherent in the guaranties at the time they are made.” Under one scenario, the average GSE guaranty fee would increase...