Mortgages originated by lenders’ retail production programs accounted for 60.7 percent of single-family loans securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the third quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Although many lenders have made strategic choices to focus on retail and scale back or abandon the wholesale market, a key factor in the dominance of retail originations was the heavy volume of refinance lending. Servicers continue to retain a significant share of their customers who refinance, and in programs like the Home Affordable Refinance Program for underwater Fannie and Freddie borrowers, retail captures the overwhelming share of the business. Loan level data from the government-sponsored enterprises do reveal, however, that mortgage brokers are contributing to the increase in HARP lending. Brokers tend...[Includes two data charts]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s five-year strategic plan aims to develop a “new system” for recording mortgages electronically and assuming custodianship of mortgage documents but is curiously silent about the role the Mortgage Electronic Registration System would play in a future revamped secondary mortgage market. The new system is among many initiatives and strategies outlined in the FHFA’s recently issued updated strategic plan for 2013-2017. The plan builds on an earlier plan for the conservatorships of the government-sponsored enterprises released in February. As part of building a new infrastructure to replace the GSE model, the FHFA said...

Just two institutions – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – end up securitizing the vast majority of conventional home loans, but a large universe of lenders deliver a significantly diverse supply of loans to the government-sponsored enterprises. A new Inside Mortgage Finance special report based on loan-level securities disclosures reveals that 1,848 different institutions delivered single-family mortgages to the two GSEs during the third quarter. They ranged in size from Wells Fargo, which delivered nearly a quarter of mortgages securitized by Fannie and Freddie during the period, to Wisconsin-based Universal Mortgage Corp., which sold one small $39,000 loan to Fannie during the period. The report, GSE Seller Profile: 3Q12, shows...

Unanticipated complications with the Dodd-Frank Act appear to have caused Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to miss a Sept. 30 deadline set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to initiate risk-sharing transactions with non-agency investors. However, FHFA officials said they continue to work with the government-sponsored enterprises on the issue. “Risk sharing is a complex process that requires time to assess market opportunities, structural considerations, make operational changes, and develop proper risk metrics and controls,” an FHFA spokesman said. “We are moving forward steadily and expect to continue making progress in the coming months.” FHFA officials would not comment...

New issuance of single-family MBS by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae jumped by 16.9 percent from the second quarter of 2012 to the third quarter, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. The three agencies issued a total of $436.0 billion of single-family MBS during the third quarter, raising year-to-date issuance to $1.194 trillion. That was up 45.6 percent from the first nine months of 2011. Over half (50.3 percent) of the agency production in 2012 has come...[Includes one data chart]

Federal banking regulators, striving to keep their bank oversight current with international regulators through the adoption of the Basel III capitalization standards, are facing growing domestic resistance, including that of some of their state-based counterparts, who are concerned about the impact on mortgage assets. Greg Gonzales, chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, said last week that the organization strongly supports federal banking agencies’ efforts to improve capital standards internationally and for systemic institutions, but is opposed to their proposed approach to implement the Basel III capital accord and to incorporate a standardized approach for risk-weighted assets. “As bank supervisors, we believe...

The FHA is starting to lose business to private mortgage insurers and the conventional mortgage market because it is no longer the cheaper alternative, a recent industry survey indicated. Numbers released by the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey show consumer preference for conventional home loans rising as a growing number of homebuyers, particularly current homeowners, used mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to finance home purchases in August. The survey noted that current homeowners increased their use of mortgages in June this year while investor participation began ...

Mortgage bankers are concerned about possible limits on the volume of loans they can sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and particularly the lack of information about the development of the new rules by the government-sponsored enterprises and their regulator. Fannie and Freddie are concerned about the ability of some approved seller-servicers to honor repurchase requests and are weighing new volume limits based on a seller’s capital. The Mortgage Bankers Association wants the Federal Housing Finance Agency to bring the issue out into the daylight. “Given the important nature of this issue, the MBA believes that the FHFA should...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency says its proposed new securitization platform could be used now by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as by private issuers, but it’s also intended to serve a post government-sponsored enterprise marketplace. Last week, the FHFA issued a call for public comment on a white paper outlining its proposed common securitization platform and a model pooling and servicing agreement. Those plans are also included in the agency’s updated strategic plan issued this week. The 31-page strategic plan – which updates a draft issued by the FHFA in February – sets...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued separate guidance to their mortgage servicers last week designed to continue the conservator-mandated effort to complement the servicing policies of the two government-sponsored enterprises and to develop a consistent framework for assessing servicer performance. The updated servicing policies seek to harmonize compensatory fee structures, servicer violations and remedies, and servicer terminations and transfer of servicing between Fannie and Freddie. Fannie’s and Freddie’s announcements also include...