Obtaining approvals to become a GSE seller/servicer can cost you, but think of the money you can make from owning servicing rights.

Expect quality control to be the single most critical component at the top of a long list of requirements for prospective lenders seeking to do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to agency officials and experts during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week. The two government-sponsored enterprises are ready, willing and able to do business with new seller/servicer partners, if they are prepared to demonstrate, in a transparent and painstaking way, they are an opportunity to Fannie or Freddie and not a risk, National Union Mortgage President and CEO Bill Cosgrove told webinar attendees. “It’s really all about quality control. Every area of your organization has to be...

Just how healthy is the residential mortgage business these days? Answer: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are swamped with seller/servicer applications.

Private mortgage insurers may soon find themselves required to meet new eligibility standards if they want to continue doing business with the government-sponsored enterprises. In written testimony submitted to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco said the FHFA intends to set new criteria for private MI companies in doing business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The revised private MI standards are among the agency’s priorities in 2013 and is part of the conservatorship strategic plan to ...

Although the HARP program had record volume in the first quarter, the program is showing almost no growth, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

The Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency says the agency needs more examiners to keep an eye on the GSEs.

Bank of America entered into a massive buyback settlement with Fannie Mae in January, but has yet to sell any 'purchase' loans to the GSE in 2013. However, this may change soon.

The federal agency caretaking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extended the streamlined refinance program for underwater mortgages at the government-sponsored enterprises for an extra two years, although it remains unclear how much gas is left in the tank. A new analysis of GSE securitization data by Inside Mortgage Finance suggests that activity under the Home Affordable Refinance Program increased by only 1.3 percent during the first quarter of 2013. A total of $69.0 billion of refinance mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 85 percent were securitized by Fannie and Freddie in the first three months of the year, representing the highest quarterly volume in the evolving program’s four-year history. Most of the increase came...[Includes two data charts]

The long-awaited slowdown in residential originations may finally be at the doorstep of the nation’s largest banks, according to first-quarter results released over the past week by the “giants” of the industry including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp. In general, gain-on-sale margins eroded or held steady, but most megabanks hiked the asset value of their mortgage servicing rights. And some, like Wells and U.S. Bancorp, continued to hold some of their agency-eligible mortgage originations on their books instead of selling them to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “Revenues have peaked for everyone,” Brian Foran, an analyst with Autonomous, told...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is moving forward with its search to find a CEO to run the new common mortgage securitization platform that will one day be shared by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and, potentially, other issuers. But it’s anybody’s guess how much the regulator is willing to pay to get a top-flight candidate, according to industry observers. At least two individuals recently were approached about the job, according to these observers. Funding for the project will presumably come...