A significantly bigger Ginnie Mae would be placed in charge of all MBS issued with a government backing while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be wound down and stripped of their government sponsorship under a bill filed last week by House Democrats. The legislation – the Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, sponsored by House Democrats John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT) – has zero chance of gaining traction this year. It would create a new Ginnie Mae MBS backed by conventional mortgages that would have the full faith and credit of the federal government while tapping private capital to absorb some of the risk. The new structure under the Delaney-Carney-Himes bill would create...

Lenders are being careful about costs, but rising loan volumes could force some firms to hire, at least a little bit.

Industry reaction to the FHFA IG report on nonbank and small lender risk was swift. Maybe Fannie Mae is better off having Countrywide as its biggest customer again?

Luckily, JPM’s Jamie Dimon doesn’t care about such silly thing as mortgage rankings. (And he's not a big fan of FHA either.)

"Buying loans from some nonbanks could damage the enterprises' reputations," the FHFA IG says.

“In essence, defendant asserts that the court should merely take its word that the documents – some of which defendant itself has not reviewed – are privileged,” wrote Sweeney. “This suggestion runs contrary to law.”

The American Bankers Association said its members were not able to clearly identify instances where a DTI cure mechanism would be useful in the normal course of bank operations.

So far, the only notable skunk at the second quarter origination party has been JPMorgan Chase which reported a 1 percent decline in fundings compared to the first quarter.

According to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data on mortgage-backed securities from the GSEs, underwriting standards on mortgages have loosened only slightly over the past year.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau late last week said it will take a close look at mortgage brokers acting as mini-correspondents, particularly if they are just trying to get around disclosure requirements and limits on broker compensation. The CFPB is concerned that some mortgage brokers are claiming to be mini-correspondent lenders by establishing warehouse funding lines when they are still essentially just facilitating a transaction between a borrower and a lender. “While some brokers may be setting up such arrangements because they intend to grow into full correspondent lenders, the bureau is concerned...