Over the past several weeks, the Treasury Department has been meeting with several industry trade groups about the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, discussing – among other things – what to do about the impending “zero capital” problem as well as the topic of multiple guarantors. Treasury’s goal, these officials said, is to come up with a workable blueprint on the future of the government-sponsored enterprises and the nation’s housing finance system – changes that might touch Ginnie Mae as well. Late this week there was...
The seasonal surge in primary market mortgage originations stood in stark contrast to a slump in new residential MBS issuance during the second quarter of 2017. Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $455.0 billion of new first-lien loans during the April-June cycle, an 18.2 percent increase from the first three months of the year, according to estimates by Inside Mortgage Finance. But the secondary market generated just $294.7 billion in MBS backed by purchase and refinance loans – a 5.3 percent decline. The result was...[Includes one data table]
Credit-risk transfers can be used to calculate guarantee fees because they’re indicative of what the private market would charge for the risk taken on by a government-sponsored enterprise, according to Freddie Mac. But the mortgage giant explained that g-fees are likely more stable than a system that relies exclusively on credit-risk transfers. Kevin Palmer, Freddie’s senior vice president of single-family credit risk transfers, said in a white paper the significant amount of credit risk being transferred to the private capital markets provides a way to calculate a market-implied g-fee. Since 2013, the GSE has transferred much of the credit risk on $760 billion of MBS it guarantees. Based on the pricing of Freddie’s Structured Agency Credit Risk transactions over the past year, the market-implied g-fee has been...
Rob Zimmer, a former Freddie Mac executive: “Republicans run this town, obviously, and there is no way they want to be identified as the party of taxpayer bailouts for large financial institutions.”
The correspondence, which includes the signature of ranking minority member Sherrod Brown, D-OH, notes: “We are simply requesting that the GSEs be permitted to build capital...."
Deliveries of conforming-jumbo loans into mortgage-backed securities slowed during the second quarter of 2017, despite the solid increase in originations of non-agency jumbo loans, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. During the second quarter, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized $27.62 billion of single-unit mortgages that had loan amounts exceeding the $424,100 conforming loan limit. That was down 4.6 percent from the first three months of the year, a smaller drop than the 6.9 percent decline in total Fannie, Freddie, FHA and VA activity. But the non-agency jumbo market saw...[Includes three data tables]
Mortgage originators that produce $1 billion to $4 billion a year in loans are continuing to be courted by potential suitors, but not many sale agreements are getting signed these days, according to investment bankers. “Private equity firms are still looking to enter the business, and sellers are listening, but I’m not seeing too many deals being completed,” said Chuck Klein, a managing partner at Mortgage Banking Solutions, Austin, TX. At the beginning of the year, Klein was...
The Mortgage Bankers Association, along with other housing trade groups, wants to make sure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac housing goals work in tandem with pending duty-to-serve requirements and multifamily volume caps to promote affordable housing. The MBA was one of about 10 groups that offered commentary on the proposed new housing goals for the government-sponsored enterprises for 2018 through 2020. The current goals expire at the end of the year. The Federal Housing Finance Agency released the proposed goals in June. The MBA said...
The growing reliance on nonbanks could pose a risk to the government housing agencies, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute’s Housing Policy Center. Just four years ago, banks originated 70 percent of new mortgages, the researchers noted. But in 2017 nonbanks are originating 60 percent of all new mortgages and 76 percent of loans destined to be securitized by Ginnie Mae. UI called...