Watt, a former Congressman, wants Congress to reform the GSEs legislatively to solve their conservatorship status and find a path forward for the two enterprises.

Some have suggested that Watt may act yet, but wants "political" cover...

The Department of Justice and three other federal agencies will rake in $182 million from separate agreements by Wells Fargo and PHH Mortgage over False Claims Act charges. The PHH settlement features a rare FCA action involving loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wells Fargo agreed to pay $108 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2006 and unsealed in 2011. It alleged that the bank overcharged veterans by masking unallowable fees and concealing the fact in order to obtain VA guarantees for the mortgage loans. At the same time, Wells allegedly falsely certified to the VA that it was not charging improper fees. Similar charges were brought...

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said it will be at least two years until Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will adopt alternative credit scoring models. A number of groups have been pushing the government-sponsored enterprises to look beyond the FICO score, and Fannie and Freddie have been studying the issue. But Watt said any major change will have to wait until the GSEs have completed the complex single-security project. “Based on the overwhelming feedback we have received from the industry, it is...

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its housing-finance reform proposal would likely have little impact on consumer mortgage costs. Whether costs to consumers are modestly higher or lower will depend on how the different components suggested for reform are determined through the political process, according to the MBA. “While the precise impact on consumer costs from true housing-finance reform may be difficult to gauge, we know...

Purchase mortgages are getting to be a tougher sell as many potential homebuyers say high prices make it a lousy time to buy a house, and sellers are getting less enthusiastic as well. A Fannie Mae survey found that the share of people surveyed who said it was a bad time to buy reached a high of 57 percent in July, while the share who said it was a good time to buy hit a low, 34 percent. The government-sponsored enterprise has been conducting the survey since 2011. “It’s...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that mortgage underwriters are not “administrative employees” and, therefore, not exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s ruling in McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Savings Bank overturned a lower court decision and deepened a split among the circuit courts on whether certain employees of mortgage companies qualify for overtime pay. Given the conflicting circuit court opinions, attorneys are...

Annaly Capital Management remained the largest MBS investor in the group, accounting for 32.2 percent of the market…

Morningstar said the ratings were discontinued due to a request from Ocwen...

PHH said it settled the cases without admitting liability “to avoid the distraction and expense of potential litigation.”