A month after Congress voted to curtail bonus payments conferred to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives, lawmakers have yet to close the deal and send a final bill to the president’s desk for signature. In early February, both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, which would bar members of Congress and congressional staff from using non-public, inside information for private gain. While the House version of the STOCK Act is weaker than the Senate’s, both versions retained an amendment sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-AZ and Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, to prohibit Fannie and Freddie executives from receiving multi-million dollar bonuses while the GSEs remain in federal conservatorship.

The outlook for the private mortgage insurers remains grim as MI companies continued reporting significant operating losses in 2011 and, unless positive factors come into play by mid-2012, time may soon run out for the sector, according to a Standard & Poor’s analysis. As the U.S. economy struggles in recovery, little hope remains for mortgage insurers to begin reporting operating profits by the end of this year, said S&P senior credit analyst Ron Joas. Sluggish employment growth and the depressed housing market have resulted in more delinquencies that pose further...(Includes one data chart)

Discover Financial Services is a few months away from having a residential mortgage component to augment its direct-to-consumer banking business model, thanks to its pending acquisition of LendingTree, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tree.com Inc., for approximately $55.9 million. LendingTree, otherwise known as Home Loan Center, originates and processes residential mortgages in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the intent to sell them in the secondary market. Loans held for sale consist primarily of residential first mortgage loans that are secured by residential real...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General took the FHFA to task this week for what the OIG considers the agency’s lax supervision of Freddie Mac’s relationship with its servicers. Specifically, the FHFA has not clearly defined its role regarding servicers, sufficiently coordinated with other federal banking agencies about risks and supervisory concerns with individual servicers, or timely addressed emerging risks presented by mortgage servicing contractors.

The mortgage servicer American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. recently announced a name change to Homeward Residential, reflecting its entrance into the correspondent and warehouse lending market in October 2011. AHMS ranked 18th on a list of top mortgage servicers in 2011 compiled by affiliated publication Inside Mortgage Finance. The company serviced $69.02 billion in residential mortgages at the end of 2011, down 9.7 percent from the year before, with most of its business in non-agency mortgages. The company plans to complete its rebranding as Homeward Residential by the second quarter of 2012. The business...

Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase will once again receive servicer incentives for modifying loans after more than seven months during which these payments were withheld by the Treasury Department for unsatisfactory performance in the Home Affordable Modification Program. The two banks will also get all the withheld incentives as part of the multistate foreclosure settlement. In June 2011, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo were all called to the carpet by the Treasury for their HAMP performance following a 10-month audit of participating servicers. The main issue was timeliness – while mods...

The refinance wave that lifted mortgage origination volume in the fourth quarter of 2011 appears to be holding steady in early 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Average monthly securitization of refinance loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased by 3.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the first two months of this year. That’s somewhat faster than the 1.2 percent increase in average total securitization volume by the two government-sponsored enterprises. The refi market may gain momentum in the coming months. The Mortgage Bankers...(Includes four data charts)

The Obama administration this week announced price cuts for refinancing loans already insured by the FHA in an effort to provide relief to underwater homeowners, estimating that as many as 3 million borrowers could take advantage of the program. Beginning June 11, the FHA will lower its upfront mortgage insurance premium from 1.0 percent to .01 percent for streamlined refinancing of FHA loans originated before June 1, 2009, and reduce the annual fee for such refis from 1.15 percent to .55 percent. To qualify for the streamline refinancing, borrowers must be current on their existing FHA...