A trio of housing trade associations went to bat for the role of government-sponsored enterprises this week, but not necessarily for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, arguing that GSEs, as well as the government itself has a role in the reform of the housing finance system. During testimony this week before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, representatives from the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Home Builders and the National Multi Housing Council/National Apartment Association warned lawmakers that the current efforts to wind down Fannie and Freddie must not disrupt the already fragile housing and...

Facing significant penalties from investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street banks are bracing for investigations of their securitization activities by the influential New York attorney general’s office and other state regulators. NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has reportedly launched an investigation into the securitization processes of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and Deutsche Bank. All the parties declined to comment, but reports say that the AG is looking into how the banks securitized mortgage loans, as well as their other practices handling mortgage loans. Specific concerns have...

Pending inter-agency proposals to implement risk-retention requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act could undermine the return of private capital to the housing finance market, warned industry participants. Testifying this week during a House subcommittee hearing, the Mortgage Bankers Association and other critics of risk retention said that a narrow definition of a “qualified residential mortgage” and overemphasis on higher downpayment may have an adverse impact on credit availability. MBA Chairman Michael Berman told members of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Economic Opportunity that while...

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings aims to raise $400 million through the sale of common stock to finance new growth opportunities in subservicing delinquent home loans, as well as in originating and securitizing new mortgages. Texas-based Nationstar, the home finance unit of Fortress Investment Group, announced the filing of an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nationstar said it sees opportunities in the current residential mortgage market for non-bank servicers to grow their portfolios by acquiring mortgage servicing rights, entering into subservicing contracts and by assuming responsibilities for...

Credit card giant Discover Financial Services is adding mortgages to its menu of financial products and services with the acquisition of Home Loan Center, a subsidiary of Tree.com. The sale price for Home Loan Center, which operates as LendingTree Loans, is up to $56.0 million. LendingTree, a correspondent lender, originates and processes home loans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The acquisition includes substantially all of HLC’s operating and related assets as well as LendingTree’s lead-generation system, adding a residential mortgage origination component to Discover’s direct lending system. Discover, a direct banking and...

Lenders clamoring for a hand hold around the slippery issue of “strategic defaulters” do have options in the form of technology and legal leverage to tackle the issue even as the problem may not be as pronounced as first thought, say experts. The problem of borrowers who otherwise have the capacity to make their mortgage payments but instead opt to walk away from the loan was once a fringe issue in the industry. But strategic default became a bigger concern as more and more borrowers found they owed more on their home than the house was worth, according to Brent Taggart, senior vice president at Green River Capital, a Utah-based real estate owned management and...

Mortgage lenders that are anxious about complying with the call report requirements of the National Mortgage Licensing System might want to consider a new automated solution developed by LendingSpace, a Fulton, MD-based technology firm. “Lenders who find themselves using a patchwork of their existing technologies to meet these requirements will spend a great deal of time and resources to ensure impeccable compliance,” said Ravi Varma, CEO of LendingSpace. “With a click of a mouse, the Automated Mortgage Call Report function in our ComplianceOne suite gathers the information from the loan origination system, and formats it so that it’s ready for...

Mortgage servicers have made little headway trying to de-bunk the widespread belief that foreclosures are profitable transactions for lenders, but a new Mortgage Bankers Association report tries to explain the impact of defaults on servicing income. Servicing advances are reimbursed when a modification is completed within 45 days, the study notes. Because they occur earlier than a foreclosure, mods limit the amount of money the servicer has to advance to investors on delinquent accounts, the trade group said. “The servicer’s reimbursement is at the top of the waterfall, meaning the servicer’s advances, which may have been from...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities remained a preferred investment for the Federal Home Loan Banks during the first quarter of 2011 with only a negligible decrease from the previous quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside The GSEs based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.Meanwhile, Ginnie Mae securities continued to grow in popularity within the FHLBank system during the first three months of this year. GSE MBS still accounted for 66.7 percent of combined FHLBank MBS portfolios. The Finance Agency’s data do not separately break out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac volume or share. Ginnie MBS grew by... [Includes one data chart]

A proposed bipartisan House bill that would dissolve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but retain an explicit government guarantee for certain mortgage-backed securities appears poised to go nowhere fast, despite vocal trade group support. Earlier this month, H.R. 1859, the Housing Finance Reform Act of 2011, was filed amid a splash of headlines by Rep. John Campbell, R-CA, and co-sponsor Rep. Gary Peters, D-MI. The bill would empower the Federal Housing Finance Agency to issue charters establishing privately held and funded housing finance guarantee associations. The associations would be empowered to deal in conventional mortgages only for the purpose of...