Tag Archives: Fannie Mae

Speaking as a guest presenter at the Rotary Club of Atlanta on Monday, Fannie Mae President and CEO Timothy Mayopoulos warned against any type of reform where housing finance is concerned, telling the audience that "the (current) system works," according to a report.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) may have to pay additional penalties to settle claims that it sold faulty U.S. mortgage-backed securities in the years leading up to the housing market crash, according to a report from Reuters.

The balance of Fannie Mae's gross mortgage portfolio dropped from $436 billion in October down to $424 billion in November, marking the 52nd time in the last 53 months Fannie Mae's portfolio declined month-over-month. With the exception of December 2012, when the portfolio grew in value at a compound annualized rate of 1 percent, the value of the portfolio has declined every month since June 2010.

It has never been more en vogue to be a critic of the GSEs. From politicians to private citizens to watchdogs within the federal government, if you want to score political points or push an agenda, calling for an end to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or just castigating the conservatorship itself as somehow unfair is a popular way to get there.

Amid reports of subdued home sales in the year's closing months, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) delivered a piece of good news in the form of continued house price gains. The agency's latest House Price Index (HPI) showed a month-to-month gain of 0.6 percent in October, picking up steam after posting no change in September.

Economists at Fannie Mae are forecasting full-year growth of 2.1 percent for 2014, a full point below 2013's rate of growth, due to the reverse in the final quarter of some unsustainable forces that boosted the economy in the third quarter. However, the group is predicting economic growth of 2.7 percent for 2015.

In a poll of senior mortgage officers conducted in November, Fannie Mae found consumer demand was down across all categories of home purchase loans, with only 42 percent of respondents reporting increases in demand for GSE-eligible loans, 43 percent for non-GSE loans, and 29 percent for government loans. Those shares compare to 53 percent, 65 percent, and 43 percent, respectively, in the third quarter.

In a recent letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the Community Mortgage Lenders of America (CMLA) urged the government to "take immediate action to cure the under-capitalization" of the GSEs by re-amending the payment terms established when they were forced to take a bailout after the crash.

The offering, announced Friday, consists of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages with more than $2.7 billion in unpaid principal balance, according to MountainView Servicing Group, which is acting as advisor on the sale. Bids are due December 18.

Fannie Mae has expanded its risk sharing offerings with Wednesday's announcement of a credit insurance risk transfer (CIRT) deal, which transfers the credit risk on a pool of loans from the taxpayers to a panel of domestic reinsurers. The new deal fulfills one of the 2014 Conservatorship Scorecard goals, which was to complete a variety of risk sharing transactions.