The Making Home Affordable program might not tap even half of the $29.9 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds allocated for it, according to new estimates from the Treasury Department. Recently loosened requirements for the Home Affordable Modification Program Tier 2 could increase activity, though initial signals suggest that the increase will not be significant. Some 1.30 million MHA actions had been implemented as of the end of the third quarter of 2012, up from 1.22 million at the end of the second quarter, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. First-lien mods as part of HAMP Tier 1 dominated MHA activity, which also included second-lien mods, short sales and unemployment forbearance plans and other programs. There were...

Securitization market professionals are jointly promoting the practice of “margining” transactions involving Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS, despite the costs involved, to reduce counterparty and systemic risks. Last week, the Treasury Market Practices Group revised its existing “best practices” for Treasury, agency debt and agency MBS markets to include a recommendation that forward-settling agency MBS transactions be margined in order to prudently manage counterparty exposures. “In order to allow market participants to develop...

Refinancing of underwater and nearly submerged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages continued to spur business at the government-sponsored enterprises during the third quarter. During the third quarter of 2012, the two GSEs securitized a total of $66.91 billion of refinance mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 85 percent, a proxy for business originated under the Home Affordable Refinance Program. That was up 13.3 percent from the second quarter, according to an Inside MBS & ABS analysis of loan-level securitization data. Official HARP data are reported...[Includes two data charts]

Look for the 113th Congress and to a lesser extent a second-term Obama administration to become more engaged in seeking a resolution to Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s future role in the mortgage market, although implementation of such a solution remains years away, say industry observers. In the short term, following a hard-fought 2012 election that left the balance of power and the political party makeup unchanged, official Washington will be primarily focused on averting the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and automatic spending cuts.

Speculation abounds across Capitol Hill and within mortgage industry circles about how long the “temporary” head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency will remain at his post following the post-election shake out. However, it remains to be seen whether President Obama, flush from re-election, will seek a replacement for FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, either by nominating a permanent agency director to the Senate or by the more politically problematic recess appointment.

In the wake of last week’s election, two congressional committees key to mortgage and housing issues face significant reorganization while the pending fiscal crisis will cause execution of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policy to remain on the backburner before lawmakers begin to reexamine GSE reform in earnest.The hard-fought electoral contest resulted in the status quo with Democrats in control of the White House and Senate, while Republicans retain their hold on the House. The House Financial Services Committee was poised for a leadership change no matter which political party prevailed with current chairman Spencer Bachus, R-AL, term-limited by House Republican Conference rules.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each emerged from the third quarter of 2012 with a healthy profit, reporting a combined $4.74 billion in net income, a 41.7 percent decline from the second quarter but still well enough into the black to forgo taxpayer assistance to stay solvent. Fannie’s third quarter net income of $1.81 billion compared to a net loss of $5.1 billion in the same quarter a year ago but much more in line with the $2.72 billion it earned during the first quarter of 2012.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should “immediately withdraw” its proposal to impose additional, upfront guaranty fees on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages in states that have unusually slow foreclosure timelines because it unfairly penalizes homeowners with higher costs for forces beyond their control, according to Connecticut’s congressional delegation. The Nutmeg State’s five congressmen and two senators dispatched a letter to the Finance Agency this week urging the FHFA to scrap its proposal issued in September targeting five states – Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York – for an additional, one-shot guaranty fee of between 15 and 30 basis points in 2013.

MGIC Investment Corp. announced last week it will pay Freddie Mac $267.5 million to settle their prolonged dispute over pool mortgage insurance coverage. The settlement was a condition set by the GSE to allow a new unit of MGIC to underwrite mortgages in seven states, though the MI said it won’t sign the deal until Freddie approves MGIC’s newly capitalized unit to write insurance.

A federal judge has allowed legal claims by current and former Fannie Mae employees over their employee stock ownership plan losses to proceed against several company directors including former CEO Daniel Mudd, as well as members of Fannie’s benefits plan committee. Lead plaintiffs Mary Moore and David Gwyer, who brought their claims against Fannie in 2009, seek compensation for losses on company stock that remained in employees’ retirement plans between April 2008 and May 2010. The government took over Fannie in September 2008 and put the GSE into conservatorship.