All three pistons in the mortgage origination engine slowed down during the first quarter of 2013, but retail production came closest to keeping the pace in a declining market, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Lenders produced an estimated $310.0 billion in originations through retail offices, bank branches, call centers and online activities during the first three months of 2013. That was down 0.9 percent from the previous quarter, but because overall production slipped 4.8 percent, the retail share of the market surged to a record 62.0 percent. The wholesale channel – both correspondent and broker – accounted...[Includes four data charts]

The interim final rule authorizes the FHFA to review compensation of an executive officer at any of the GSEs.

Are investors making a big mistake by speculating in Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac common and preferred?

Essent, the number-five player in mortgage insurance, has received ratings from both S&P and Moody's.

One investor paid $100,000 per unit for a special class of Fannie Mae preferred.

Fannie Mae and Bank of America resolved a huge portion of the whopping $19.04 billion in disputed buyback requests facing the mortgage industry at the beginning of 2013, but both government-sponsored enterprises will remain aggressive in hunting for repurchase opportunities. In fact, new repurchase requests increased by a whopping 87.8 percent in the first three months of this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, reaching a record $12.14 billion, according to an analysis of GSE quarterly reports by Inside Mortgage Finance. The biggest increase was at Fannie Mae, where new buyback requests soared to $9.91 billion, while Freddie Mac reported a more modest 5.2 percent increase. The jump in new buyback demands occurred...[Includes one data chart]

More Fannie Mae mortgage business is ending up in multi-issuer pools as more lenders turn to direct sales to the government-sponsored enterprise, and experts say the company has been able to turn the trend to its advantage in the securities market. According to a new loan-level analysis of single-family mortgage-backed securities by Inside Mortgage Finance, some 39.1 percent of Fannie’s MBS production in the first quarter of 2013 was in multi-issuer pools. That compared to 30.0 percent, by dollar volume, of the GSE’s MBS issuance back in the first quarter of last year. Single-seller pools, generated mostly by the giants of the mortgage lending industry, continue...

Over the past few weeks, speculators have been driving up the price of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac common stock and “trust” preferred shares in the hope of a payoff somewhere down the line. But according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance, the only payoff might come if they can find someone else willing to pay more than they did for stock that is considered virtually worthless. Industry lobbyists, former government-sponsored enterprise executives and some investors say...

The ability-to-repay rule promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is perhaps the single most important mortgage-related regulation the CFPB will produce under the Dodd-Frank Act, and mortgage lenders will need a vigorous and comprehensive strategy if they are going to make qualified mortgages profitably while maintaining the desired level of legal protection. But before lenders get to the compliance pieces of the QM puzzle, they’ve got to figure out “how to get to QM” and what types of loans they want to make. “We’re assuming...

Efforts by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to use the False Claims Act to recoup $1 billion in losses suffered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have suffered a big setback. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed claims for treble damages and penalties the federal government brought under the FCA against Bank of America as successor to Countrywide Financial for allegedly selling defective loans to the two government-sponsored enterprises while representing that the mortgages complied with their requirements. The government asserted...