According to industry sources, the FHA recently sent out administrative letters to a handful of residential lenders. Meanwhile, yet another new subprime originator has emerged.

Through the first quarter of 2013, 1.1 million borrowers have received permanent HAMP modifications, well below the 3 million to 4 million the Obama administration projected when launching the program in 2009.

The revised rule excludes from the calculation of points and fees paid by a consumer to a mortgage broker when that payment has already been counted toward the points-and-fees thresholds as part of the finance charge.

Legislation introduced last week by a Senate Republican would revoke the charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and create a new Mortgage Finance Agency for the securitization of single-family and multifamily mortgages. Meanwhile, a separate bipartisan Senate bill still in the works would also dispense with the existing two government-sponsored enterprises while building a new one. Filed on May 23 by Sen. Johnny Isakson, the Mortgage Finance Act of 2013 is patterned on legislation the Georgia Republican proposed in 2011. It would put the GSEs into “irrevocable receivership,” with the Federal Housing Finance Agency tasked as their receiver no later than 18 months after enactment of the bill. “Immediately upon placement of the enterprises into receivership, the FHFA shall commence...

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader doesn’t exactly have a seat at the mortgage reform table, but that isn’t stopping him from asking the Treasury Department to do something to protect what he calls “the already financially injured common shareholders” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a recent letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Nader blames a host of senior government officials – including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke – for misleading investors about the financial health of Fannie and Freddie just months before they were seized by the federal government in September 2008. Nader, a one-time shareholder in the government-sponsored enterprises, is pushing...

Mark Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, told Inside Mortgage Finance that including “lender paid” compensation to brokers in the 3 percent cap is “double counting.

John Robbins is out at Bexil American Mortgage. Meanwhile, EverBank readies its second jumbo MBS deal of the year.

Non-agency MBS execution is competitive with agency MBS execution for purchase mortgages with loan-to-value ratios below 70 percent and credit scores above 740.

Citigroup will pay Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac damages for the faulty MBS it sold to them but no one knows the cost of the settlement.

Not only is HUD looking into PHH's underwriting practices, but the government has questions about the lender's foreclosure expenses.