Back in early June, the share price of Fannie/Freddie common was rallying, reaching $3.16 (for the former) and $3.07 for the latter. If you had bought in at those prices, today you’d be looking at losses of 23.1% and 24.7%, respectively.

In a new opinion piece, former Freddie CEO Don Layton argues against having multiple MBS guarantors, a position he’s taken in the past. Layton, who now bides his time at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, argues the barriers to entering the secondary guarantee business are high, “possibly even insurmountable.”

Chris George, CEO of CMG Financial and the current chairman of the MBA, provided an update on the effort this week at the California Mortgage Bankers Association’s western secondary market conference in San Francisco.