Peter Federico, Freddie Mac's executive vice president - Investments and Capital Markets, has tendered his resignation after more than two decades with the GSE.

New primary mortgage insurance activity declined in step with slowing mortgage origination activity in the first quarter of 2011, and private MIs took more than their share of the hit, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. A total of $93.54 billion of mortgages originated in the first three months of the year carried primary MI coverage, down 20.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. That was, however, less severe than the 35.0 percent drop in new loan originations over the same period. As refinance transactions represented a smaller share of... [Includes two data charts]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported sharply different earnings results for the first quarter, but at least one thing was mostly the same: both government-sponsored enterprises continued to push a significant volume of loans back to lenders through repurchase demands while carrying a large inventory of unresolved buybacks. “Some of our seller/servicers have failed to fully perform their repurchase obligations due to a lack of financial obligations in a timely manner,” Freddie said in its first quarter 2011 earnings report. As of March 31, 2011, the unpaid balance of loans subject to...

With a little over two months remaining before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is scheduled to formally take over the sprawling smorgasbord of federal mortgage responsibilities, the lack of a director for the controversial new agency could hinder the CFPB’s launch. Republicans on Capitol Hill have stepped up their campaign to restructure the agency before it gets off the ground. The House Financial Services Committee this week is scheduled to mark up several bills that would impose a five-member commission to oversee the CFPB, rather than a single director, and delay its takeover of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, Truth in Lending Act and other consumer protection laws until...

The much-maligned Home Affordable Modification Program posted modest gains in the number of new trial and permanent modifications started during the first quarter of 2011, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of data released by the Obama administration. The number of new permanent mods started rose 8.1 percent from the fourth quarter, while the number of new trial mod offers was up 2.2 percent. First-quarter 2011 volume in both categories remained well below the levels set back in early 2010, when the program was still gaining traction. The number of active permanent HAMP modifications rose... [Includes two data charts]

The Government Accountability Office says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other federal regulators should include foreclosure practices in their anticipated national servicing standards, as well as a formal assessment of the risks that are associated with poor documentation practices – the exact repercussions of which are still undetermined. The new GAO report was sparked by widespread criticism of mortgage servicers’ handling of foreclosure documents. It was believed that many affidavits had been improperly notarized or signed, leading to concerns over how these loans were transferred into...

The Department of Justice this week flexed its muscle against mortgage redlining in a settlement with a Michigan lender while expressing growing concern over a possible re-emergence of redlining as access to credit becomes more difficult. Industry attorneys noted with some alarm the message the DOJ is sending mortgage lenders through its settlement with Citizens Republic Bancorp and Citizens Bank of Flint, MI. They say the message reflects disturbing trends that defense lawyers have been seeing in their representations of lenders accused of redlining. The proposed settlement, which requires court approval, was filed in conjunction with...

A proposed “qualified mortgage” standard to determine a borrower’s ability to repay a mortgage loan creates many pitfalls for loan originators and subjects them to enormous liability if they fail to comply, warned compliance experts. The risk of making non-qualified mortgages for lenders is the borrower’s defense to foreclosure and the higher damages that would be incurred for noncompliance, as well as the impact on the liquidity of those loans if lenders were to sell them down the road, according to panelists on a webinar hosted last week by Inside Mortgage Finance. The proposed ability-to-repay rules and alternative definitions of a “qualified mortgage” (QM) are out for...

The so-called RMBS 2.0 features squeaky-clean collateral and high-definition transparency, but industry experts say, more importantly, that after years of mostly talk there is now some momentum in the market. Adam Yarnold, a managing director at Barclays Capital, said there are half a dozen residential mortgage conduits – including his firm – that are buying loans. During a panel session at the secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association, he noted that more broker/dealers are in the wings. Barclays is buying high-quality loans with loan-to-value ratios below 70 percent and debt-to-income ratios that come close to the standards proposed by federal regulators for qualified residential mortgages, Yarnold said. The company hosts a web-based portal through which it locks loans and...

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to shrink their mortgage portfolios as required by government regulators during the first quarter of 2011 even as the two government-sponsored enterprises posted dramatically different earnings reports for the first three months of the year. Under the terms of the purchase agreement with the Treasury Department and under Federal Housing Finance Agency regulation, both Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage-related investments portfolio are subject to a cap that decreases by 10 percent each year until each portfolio reaches $250 billion. By Dec. 31, 2011, neither company will be able to hold an unpaid principal balance for mortgage-related investments that exceeds $729 billion. “FHFA has stated that we will not be a substantial buyer or seller of mortgages for... [Includes one data chart]