Three important mortgage-related tax provisions worth an estimated $600 billion over five years survived Washington policymakers’ chopping block in the final agreement that averted the “fiscal cliff” of massive automatic tax hikes and spending cuts. However, a new fight between Republicans and Democrats is around the corner over increasing the nation’s debt limit again, and the industry fears it is not out of the woods yet. H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama, includes...

Acknowledging problems with independent foreclosure reviews established in 2011, federal regulators this week agreed to a settlement with 10 bank servicers for $8.5 billion in borrower relief. The settlement applies to a portion of the 14 servicers under related consent orders from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “The OCC and the Federal Reserve accepted this agreement because it provides the greatest benefit to consumers subject to unsafe and unsound mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices during the relevant period in a more timely manner than would have occurred under the review process,” the regulators said. The agreement in principle includes...

Expect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to roll out a national mortgage database this year, but experts say it remains to be seen how comprehensive or how secure the first-of-its-kind mega electronic information storehouse will be. This week, during a webinar sponsored by the Ballard Spahr law firm, experts from Ballard and Navigant Consulting agreed that the government’s commitment to develop an origination-to-foreclosure repository of mortgage data is a “daunting” task that will take much longer than a single calendar year to implement and refine. “I absolutely believe...

Fannie Mae is working on building an in-house unit to value mortgage servicing rights, according to industry officials who’ve been briefed on the GSE’s plans. However, it’s unclear at this point how far along Fannie is. A spokesman for the company declined to comment to Inside The GSEs about the matter. Officials familiar with the effort, including one former GSE executive, said Fannie is looking to value MSRs for two main reasons: to better judge counter-party risk on mortgage bankers that sell residential loans to the company, and perhaps to better value the asset because it may have plans to buy or finance servicing rights in the future.

Mortgage market observers say they are seeing a gradually building struggle by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to maintain its precarious balance between the FHFA’s congressionally-mandated roles as conservator to the GSEs and – indirectly – regulator of 65 percent of the mortgage market. Industry interests, meanwhile, continue to call for greater “transparency” surrounding Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-related decision making. Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the FHFA was created to succeed the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight as regulator to Fannie and Freddie as well as the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.

Citing a lack of any “specific credible evidence of actual violations” within its purview, the House Ethics Committee last week announced it has dropped its probe of alleged legislative influence pedaling related to Countrywide Financial’s “VIP Program.” In a statement dropped on Dec. 27, the committee said that although there was some evidence of mortgage loans made to House members and staffers through Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo's “Friends of Angelo” program, the allegations are either too dated or involve individuals no longer serving in the House.

The official watchdog of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has pointedly suggested that the GSE regulator direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine whether or by how much the two companies were swindled out of billions of dollars as a result of banks’ alleged manipulation of a key interest rate and then determine how to recoup those losses, in court if necessary. A recent unpublished memo by the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General urged the Finance Agency to prepare to file suit against the banks involved in setting the London Interbank Offered Rate after an analysis of the GSEs’ published financial statements and publicly available historical interest data concluded that Fannie and Freddie may have suffered more than $3 billion in losses due to LIBOR manipulation.

The White House is once again toying with the idea of HARP 3.0 - using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance underwater non-agency loans, giving the GSEs leeway to charge higher guaranty fees for securitizing these mortgages, and waiving mortgage insurance requirements, according to industry officials who’ve been briefed on the plan. However, such an effort – modeled on the GSE’s Home Affordable Refinancing Program – would require Congressional approval and is already meeting with industry resistance. Also, many House Republicans are not happy with the thought. “While we all recognize the need to help as many underwater borrowers as possible, I do not think any further expansion of the GSE charter to originate higher risk, underwater loans makes sense and only shifts risk from the private sector onto the U.S. taxpayer,” said David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Based on past experience, the GSEs are not experts at pricing these kinds of risks.”

As more names are thrown into the “Who Will Succeed DeMarco at FHFA” sweepstakes, the question increasingly being is asked is this: which candidate will placate Congressional Republicans? Republicans, so far, have held united against allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to write down the principal on underwater mortgages as a loan modification tool. Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, of course, has shot down the idea numerous times.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are moving forward together to develop industry-wide data standards, according to updates from both GSEs. A component of the FHFA-mandated Uniform Mortgage Data Program, the Uniform Mortgage Servicing Dataset will define a standard dataset that will facilitate data exchanges between servicers and investors with standardized definitions, formats and valid data values. “The adoption of an industry standard data model will provide long-term benefits to servicers, GSEs and the mortgage industry,” noted the GSEs’ update published Dec. 12.