On Wednesday, Freddie Mac announced that it guaranteed its second multifamily small balance loan securitization. The government-sponsored enterprise expects to guarantee approximately $109 billion in SB Certificates and plans to price them next week.

The Mortgage Bankers Association urged the Basel Committee this week to abandon its “overly simplistic” proposal to add onto institutional balance sheets layers of risk-based capital for interest rate risk.

Despite former Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco's call for comprehensive reform of the nation's housing finance system and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the analysts at Compass Point Research & Trading remain convinced "that there is neither the legislative capacity nor political will to address housing finance reform in this Congress."

All three mortgage production channels saw solid gains in originations from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2015, but correspondents had the best of it.

A recent shift in the purchase-mortgage market share toward the government-sponsored enterprises appears to be part of seasonal home buying patterns rather than direct competition for mortgages with low downpayments.

The mortgage finance industry generally supports the final interagency statement on diversity policies and practices issued by the federal banking regulators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission, but called for additional clarification on some of the data being sought in order to maximize its effectiveness – and to limit lenders' liability.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released final housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 2015 through 2017 on Wednesday. It increased both the single-family low-income purchase goals and multifamily low-income goals and established a new low-income housing subgoal for small multifamily properties.

The mortgage industry has completed a total of 24 million workout plans and six million proprietary loan modifications for homeowners since 2007, according to new figures released Thursday by HOPE NOW, the voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profit counselors.

Get Your TRID On. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has put out a Know Before You Owe guide for real estate pros to help them navigate the upcoming TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, otherwise known as TRID.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's non-seasonally-adjusted application index increased by 3.0 percent compared with the previous week, with the increase driven by refinances.