A New York state judge last week dismissed with prejudice a $567 million legal action brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency against Deutsche Bank in 2012 over the bank’s refusal to repurchase hundreds of millions of residential mortgage-backed securities from Freddie Mac. Judge Eileen Bransten of New York’s State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled the FHFA’s suit is barred by New York’s six-year statute of limitations.The FHFA sought to have the bank cover Freddie’s losses on defective MBS purchased from a $1.4 billion transaction.
Activity Plunges. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized just $29.95 billion of single-family mortgages with private mortgage-insurance coverage during the first quarter of 2014, a 30.9 percent decline from the previous period, according to an analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated publication. The steepness of the private MI downturn was in line with the 29.1 percent downturn in overall business at the two GSEs from the fourth quarter of 2013. And the flow of private MI loans in early 2014 was down 40.2 percent from the first quarter of last year, a less severe drop than the 63.7 swoon in the overall GSE market over that period.
A sustained decline in GSE refinances, coupled with faltering purchase activity throughout the first quarter, helped contribute to an overall drop in the volume of single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in March. In the first quarter of 2014, Fannie and Freddie combined for $355.8 billion in new single-family securitizations, down 63.7 percent year-to-date.In March, Fannie and Freddie produced just $37.6 billion of single-family MBS, down 15.6 percent from February. It was the lowest monthly volume since January 2009.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae saw much lower business volume in both purchase-money mortgages and refinance loans during the first quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. The agencies securitized a total of $95.9 billion of purchase mortgages during the first three months of the year, down 28.8 percent from the previous quarter. That was a steeper decline than in refinance volume, which slid 24.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013. Compared to a year ago, the purchase market continued...[Includes three data charts]
The drumbeat of opposition to the Senate’s housing finance reform legislation grew louder this week after a coalition of small lender groups said the proposal needs to be modified. Some lawmakers are openly disparaging the bill’s prospects, prompting open speculation that the scheduled April 29 markup will be postponed. The bipartisan housing-finance reform bill crafted by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a new secondary-market structure through which a variety of private entities could issue mortgage-backed securities with a partial government guaranty. It specifically provides for one or more mutually-owned companies that would provide access for smaller lenders. The proposed legislation also sets up...
Total consumer complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rose 34 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, but gripes about home mortgages fell 29.3 percent from year-ago levels, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB, an affiliated newsletter. The strong improvement from last year was driven largely by a 46.8 percent plunge in grievances about loan modifications. But complaints about servicing in general were up 21.4 percent from the first quarter of last year, while the other five mortgage-related categories were lower. Gripes having to do with loan application or other origination-related issues fell 26.7 percent from the first quarter of 2013. The number of gripes that were responded to in a timely manner fell...
FHFA Director Mel Watt may have something to say soon on the topic of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan level price adjustments, commonly known as LLPAs. As for the GSE 'Scorecard'...
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