Tag Archives: FHFA

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) labeled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as "critical concerns" in the composite rating category for 2012. FHFA noted the GSEs generated positive annual income in 2012, a first since 2006, with Fannie Mae bringing in more than $17 billion in earnings and Freddie Mac reporting net income of $11 billion in 2012. Credit risk, though, remained a critical concern for the GSEs, unchanged from 2011. The report also noted that troubled assets are still at high levels.

In March, the GSEs refinanced close to 100,000 loans through HARP, bringing the program total since the 2009 inception to nearly 2.4 million.

Two law firms have joined to file a class action lawsuit against the United States government, alleging it violated the Fifth Amendment when it took the GSEs into conservatorship.

While a new bill proposing the liquidation of the GSEs might have investors unsure about their future, analysts at Barclays insist there is little to worry about for the time being. The bill, authored by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and titled the "Secondary Mortgage Market Reform Act of 2013," represents a major bipartisan step for housing finance reform. However, the team at Barclays believes the legislation may not go anywhere in its current form.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released the third paper in its series on secondary market reform.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported a slight bump in contract mortgage interest rates throughout April.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Citigroup have reached a settlement over allegations of fraud in the selling of $3.5 billion of mortgage-backed securities.

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) offered a comment letter Tuesday addressing the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) proposed restrictions on lender-placed insurance practices. In a response for the association, NAFCU senior regulatory affairs counsel Tessema Tefferi urges FHFA to scale back the discussed restrictions, which he believes are too broad. In addition, Tefferi asks the agency to ensure its policies and regulations are consistent with those already laid out in the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

The stage is set for the private residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market to make a comeback this year, Barclays says in a new research report.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) shared a proposal that it says would bring private capital back into the mortgage market while decreasing costs for taxpayers and borrowers.