The conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been lax in its oversight of business decisions made by the two government-sponsored enterprises and lacks a formal verification process to keep the two companies honest, according to a new audit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s official watchdog. The FHFA’s Office of Inspector General found numerous instances where the FHFA didn’t ask the companies and the two GSEs didn’t tell the agency about significant business decisions, even when such approval was required. “FHFA-OIG found that FHFA did not require...

MGIC Investment announced late last week that it won certain concessions from Freddie Mac and the two are working to resolve a dispute regarding mortgage insurance pool pricing by the end of this month. Freddie cut a required capital contribution by MGIC Investment in half and allowed a significant expansion of the number of areas in which an MGIC subsidiary can write new business. “I am pleased with the spirit of cooperation all parties have shown in moving forward to reach this point,” said Curt Culver, chairman and CEO of MGIC Investment and Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. “While there can be no guaranty that the open matters that remain can be successfully resolved, I am hopeful we will continue to make progress.” In May, MGIC filed...

There is a clear need to reform the government-sponsored enterprise structure but how aggressively Congress will move on it and whether the next administration can provide much-needed leadership is unclear, according to housing and mortgage industry experts. Panelists in a forum hosted this week by the Progressive Policy Institute and the American Action Forum said they doubt Congress will be able to deal with the complex issue of GSE reform in 2013. Some among the panel of top economists and housing market experts said it may take a while before Congress can act on any reform legislation, much less in a bipartisan manner. Congress will not be...

Researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have found additional evidence to support New York Fed President William Dudley’s call for an increase in streamlined refinances for current borrowers with agency mortgages. They suggest that further changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program to prompt refis and prepayments are not a “zero sum game” between borrowers and agency MBS investors. In January, Dudley said obstacles have prevented...

The National Credit Union Administration filed a lawsuit this week against Barclays Capital alleging misrepresentations in the sale of non-agency mortgage-backed securities to credit unions that subsequently failed. The NCUA said U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union paid more than $555 million for the non-agency MBS in question. Debbie Matz, chairman of the NCUA Board, said Barclays issued faulty disclosures on non-agency MBS it underwrote ... [Includes two briefs]

A proposed move by Fannie Mae to cap its loan purchases from new lenders and servicers contingent on the lenders’ net worth, among other factors, is rife with unintended consequences and should be examined closely before the company takes final action, say industry officials. A spokesman for the government-sponsored enterprise confirmed that Fannie is looking to change how it conducts business with “unfamiliar” lenders in response to the “significant contraction” among the correspondent buyers in the secondary market. The consequence of the contraction has led to growth in the number of lenders seeking to do business directly with the GSE. “Many of these newly approved lenders are...

Home-purchase mortgage activity, which dropped to a 15-year low in 2011, may be finally showing some signs of life in 2012. Thanks to very low mortgage rates and increased consumer confidence in home prices, a growing number of homebuyers – particularly current homeowners – are now taking out mortgages. In fact, the use of conventional conforming mortgage financing among homebuyers climbed to a two and a half year high in August, according to numbers released this week by the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. “Conventional mortgages are...

The single-family mortgage market continued to shrink during the first half of 2012, registering the 13th consecutive quarterly decline in mortgage debt outstanding since early 2008. The Federal Reserve reported late last week that there were $10.028 trillion of single-family mortgages outstanding at the end of June. That was down 0.5 percent from the previous quarter and represented a cumulative 10.3 percent drop since March 2008. The supply of home mortgage debt fell to its lowest level since the midway point in 2006. There are two growth sectors, however. The supply of Ginnie Mae single-family servicing surged...[Includes one data chart]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would levy extra guaranty fee charges on mortgages securing property in five states to account for the increased cost of foreclosures in those states under a proposal outlined this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA proposes to target five states – Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York – for an additional, one-shot guaranty fee ranging from 15 basis points to 30 bps. “The size of the fee adjustments is intended to reflect the disparity in costs, as compared to the national average,” explained the FHFA. The five states were...

Fannie Mae’s High Touch Servicing Program, an initiative that utilizes specialty servicers to deal with at-risk borrowers to help reduce the number of defaults, is basically sound, but there are some issues with controls and cost savings, a new inspector general’s report found. “An internal audit conducted by Fannie Mae raised questions about the controls surrounding the High Touch Servicing Program, as well as the likelihood that it would achieve the projected savings,” the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General said in a report issued this week. “Fannie Mae relied...