Fannie Mae has priced its fourth and largest risk-sharing transaction to date, a more than $2 billion offering pegged to a pool of mortgages acquired last year, the GSE announced last week. The $2.05 billion note is the GSE’s third transaction under its Connecticut Avenue Securities series issued this year. Last year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency ordered both Fannie and Freddie Mac to shrink their role in the U.S. housing market. The latest offering – Series 2014-C03 – included reference loans with original loan-to-value ratios of up to 97 percent and “is consistent with prior transactions.”

New mortgage insurance eligibility rules proposed earlier this month by the Federal Housing Finance Agency appear likely to cause some MIs to tweak their corporate structures and/or to raise additional capital, note industry observers. In its draft Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements, the FHFA directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to revise, expand and align their risk management requirements for mortgage insurance counterparties.The updated financial requirements incorporate a new, risk-based framework that ensures that approved insurers have a sufficient level of liquid assets from which to pay claims.

Are officials at HUD worried that JPM's Jamie Dimon may follow through on his threat to leave the FHA program? Not in the least.

The 10 groups question “whether it is appropriate for the GSEs to target private sector returns while in conservatorship.”

In response to the suit, a Chase spokesman said, “We approved Ms. Wasko for a loan modification in 2010, but she never accepted it."

Mortgage lenders and other financial services providers are up in arms about a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal to allow consumers to post narrative complaints about companies in the agency’s online complaint database. The bureau wants to expand the current database to include “unstructured consumer complaint narrative data.” A consumer who submits a complaint will be given the opportunity to check a consent box giving the bureau permission to publish his or her narrative. Where the consumer provides consent to publish the narrative, the related company will be given...

A federal judge last week granted limited discovery to a hedge fund representing a group of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders as they challenge the government’s “net worth sweep” of their profits. But the court will keep a tight lid on public access to the documents in a nod to the government’s claim that a leak could have dire economic consequences on the mortgage market. Fairholme Capital Management has been pushing hard for discovery and access to internal government documents since the shareholder filed suit last summer demanding that the Treasury Department void its August 2012 Third Amendment to its preferred stock purchase agreement with Fannie and Freddie. In her ruling, Judge Margaret Sweeney of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims was...

Or perhaps the FHA is concerned that the private mortgage insurance industry will continue to gain market share at its expense?

New issuance of non-mortgage ABS dropped slightly during the second quarter of 2014 from the robust levels recorded in the first quarter of 2014, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. A total of $49.14 billion of non-mortgage ABS were issued during the April-to-June cycle, an 8.0 percent decline from the first quarter of 2014. But new issuance remained...[Includes three data charts]

Subprime auto lending is just about back to the levels seen before the financial crisis, with increased ABS issuance volumes, somewhat higher credit losses and more credit enhancement to offset declining ABS credit quality, according to new research from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. While newer subprime auto ABS have more credit risk, ratings are expected to remain stable. During an S&P webinar this week, Amy Martin, a senior director at the rating service, pointed out...