The controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to hit the ground running when it officially opens its doors for business July 21, whether or not the agency has a director in place. Steve Antonakes, assistant director for large bank supervision at the CFPB, told industry executives last week that the agency is ready to begin conducting “point-in-time” examinations of banks with more than $10 billion in assets, exams that will last anywhere from four to 12 weeks, based on the size and complexity of the institution. A clean exam means...

A broad coalition of industry trade groups, consumer advocates and community groups urged federal regulators to open the door to qualified residential mortgage status for loans with low downpayments, but offered only the mildest support for private mortgage insurance. The Coalition for Sensible Housing Policy reiterated criticism of the QRM standard drafted by federal regulators as part of the securitization risk-retention proposed rule earlier this year that has been made...

In an apparent victory for the mortgage industry, the Senate has set aside amendments to an economic development bill that would have established national standards for mortgage servicers and changed the way the FHA collects interest payments on prepaid FHA-insured mortgage loans. The Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association warned legislators that adoption of the amendments would be...

The industry’s foreclosure debacle – including the validity of the transfer of mortgages and the role of MERS – has raised a number of critical public policy questions that industry leaders and policymakers will need to resolve if the market and the industry are to return to a fully functioning form once again, a leading industry legal expert told mortgage compliance officials recently...

New federal restrictions on mortgage broker compensation will likely add momentum to the shift away from wholesale mortgage production programs and ultimately dampen MBS prepayment speeds, according to an analysis by Barclays Capital. Most major primary market lenders have been moving away from the broker market since the housing sector began to crumble in 2007. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newslet-ter, the broker share of new mortgage originations peaked in 2005 at 31.3 percent of primary market lending. Between 2005 and 2007, brokers accounted...

Serious delinquency rates on subprime mortgages improved in the first quarter of 2011 for a fifth consecutive quarter. However, analysts warn that the sector faces increased risks due to scrutiny from federal regulators and Congress. Meanwhile, subprime originations remain all but nonexistent, causing the amount of subprime mortgages outstanding to fall to an estimated $605.0 billion in the first quarter of 2011, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets. In 2005, an estimated $625.0 billion in subprime mortgages were originated, with another...[includes one data chart]

More than two years after being placed into government conservatorship, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain “critical supervisory concerns” as “key challenges” at both government-sponsored enterprises continue to compel the GSEs to rely on federal funding to stay afloat, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. FHFA’s annual report to Congress this week noted losses from mortgages originated from 2005 through 2008, as well as forecasted losses from that same pre-conservatorship period, remain a continuing source of...

In light of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s federal conservatorship status and the resulting control by the Treasury Department, the two GSEs are “effectively part of the government” and their operations should be reflected in the federal budget, according to the Congressional Budget Office.CBO has concluded that using a fair-value approach to estimate Fannie and Freddie’s subsidy costs is the best way to give Congress and taxpayers the most accurate accounting information.

The sponsor of legislation that would make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac subject to the Freedom of Information Act’s government transparency provisions told Inside The GSEs this week he is optimistic his bill has a “real fighting chance” of passage in the House.Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-UT, said his bill, H.R. 463, The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Transparency Act of 2011, has “picked up momentum” following a hearing two weeks ago, and the headlines it produced, in which the GSEs’ regulator panned the bill as potentially harmful to Fannie and Freddie.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a legislative remedy in Congress to reform and/or replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The expectation on the Hill and throughout the industry is that meaningful action on GSE reform won’t occur until 2013 at the earliest, industry sources tell Inside The GSEs.