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Inside The GSEs

January 24, 2014

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Treasury Official: HARP Expansion No Go, GSE Wind Down Continues

The Treasury Department’s point man on housing declared this week that the government has no appetite to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program, and he reiterated past Obama administration pledges to cashier Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury on housing finance policy, outlined for attendees of the ABS Vegas conference the administration’s housing goals, including its opposition to any HARP eligibility tweaking and its continued support for housing finance reform. Read More

House Democrat Trio Proposes Long-Shot GSE Reform Legislation

Three House Democrats have added their own proposal to the growing list of legislative housing finance reforms that, in time, could pave the way for the government to sell off Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while giving new purpose to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The reform proposal by Reps. John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT) would establish a system of government reinsurance for eligible mortgage-backed securities. The idea is to leverage the government’s capacity and the market’s ability to price risk, they said. Read More

Investors Bidding Up Price of Fannie, Freddie ‘Junior’ Preferred

Investors hoping to get in on the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac preferred stock speculation game may want to bring their wallets. The price of the “junior” preferred is now trading at roughly 40 percent of par compared to 20 percent a few months ago, according to investors in the market. Read More

FHFA Official: Dividend’s Threat to GSE Soundness Prompted ‘Sweep’

The Treasury Department’s surprise move during the summer of 2012 to revise the GSE Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement was prompted by fears that Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s previous dividend payment obligations “would lead to the exhaustion of the Treasury [financial] commitment,” according to a senior Federal Housing Finance Agency official. … Read More

House Quartet Wants Watt to Expand GSE Use of Credit Score

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should revise their seller/servicer guidelines to allow use of credit scores from more than one provider in order to “foster competition,” according to a bipartisan quartet of House Financial Services Committee members. In a letter sent to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, Reps. Ed Royce, R-CA; Spencer Bachus, R-AL; James Himes, D-CT; and Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, said that the GSEs should not be restricted to relying on credit scores provided solely by the Fair Isaac Corp. Read More

Fannie Issues $750 Million Risk-Sharing Transaction

Fannie Mae last week priced its second capital markets risk-sharing transaction, with about 50 investors buying into the $750 million deal. The more senior of the two tranches offered by Fannie priced at one-month LIBOR plus a spread of 160 basis points, while the lower tranche priced at one-month LIBOR plus a spread of 440 basis points. Read More

Fannie ‘Buys’ $10.3B of Mortgage Servicing Rights from Citigroup

Fannie Mae has signed a definitive agreement to buy $10.3 billion of mostly delinquent mortgage servicing rights from Citigroup for an undisclosed sum. Roughly 64,000 Fannie-backed loans are involved in the transaction. The GSE confirmed the sale last week. It plans to transfer the receivables to one of its specialty servicers, but declined to say which one. It has about five, including the IBM-owned Seterus and Walter Investment. Read More

FHFA-OIG: Fannie Overpaid for Inspections, Calls for Refunds

Fannie Mae’s process for paying for servicer property inspections has “significant control deficiencies,” prompting the official watchdog of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to conclude that additional agency oversight is required, according to a new report. The audit by the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General estimated that some 9.5 percent of claims for pre-foreclosure property inspections in 2011 and 2012 resulted in $5 million in overpayments by Fannie. GSE guidelines require servicers to perform a monthly inspection on all delinquent properties. Read More

GSEs See Growing Competition as They Await Size MF Footprint in ‘14

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are poised to see enhanced competition in the multifamily mortgage-backed securities market in 2014, but it remains to be seen whether the GSEs’ regulator will follow through on proposed restraints on their multifamily footprint. The two GSEs await fresh direction from the FHFA in terms of any possible further constriction of their multifamily activity, after they were directed in 2013 to reduce their multifamily loan purchases by 10 percent from the previous year. Read More

Enterprise Endnotes

FHFA Launches ‘Servicing Project’ to Watch Counterparty Risk. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has launched what industry officials have labeled “a servicing project” to keep an eye on all large servicing sales where the underlying collateral is guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Sources briefed on the effort said the FHFAis now officially asking that the GSEs get agency approval for any sales of mortgage servicing rights where 25,000 or more in loans are being transferred. This translates into deal sizes of at least $5 billion. Read More

Fannie, Freddie Steady Refi Decline Contributes to MBS Drop in 2013

A steady decline in GSE refinances throughout 2013 coupled with faltering purchase mortgage activity during the final third of the year helped contribute to an overall dip in the volume of single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both on a month-to-month and year-end basis, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie issued $55.8 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities in December, a 4.9 percent decline from November. Read More

Fannie, Freddie Loss Mitigation Activity Declines in 3Q 2013

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s home-retention activity declined for the most part during the third quarter of 2013, according to a new analysis of Federal Housing Finance Agency data by Inside The GSEs. Total loss mitigation activity – total home-retention efforts and foreclosure activities combined – declined 8.3 percent during the third quarter to 152,101 and was down 21.3 percent from a year-ago. Read More

Large Lenders Lead Decline in Fannie, Freddie MBS Biz in 2013

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined did less business in single-family mortgage-backed securities in 2013 than the previous year while a growing share of business came from small and mid-sized lenders, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis. For the year, the two GSEs produced $1.161 trillion in single-family MBS, down 8.4 percent from their overall production in 2012. Read More

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