The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s recent extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program has “significantly lessened” the already slim prospects of any so-called HARP 3.0 legislation advancing through Congress, say analysts. The Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act of 2013, by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Barbara Boxer, D-CA, had already been struggling to gain traction in Congress amid the steady volume of HARP refis in recent months and Republican resistance to expanding current HARP eligibility requirements. HARP had been scheduled to expire at the end of this year before the FHFA’s directive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier this month to extend the refi program through Dec. 31, 2015.

Private mortgage insurers provided coverage on some $8.2 billion of mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the first quarter of 2013 that had loan-to-value ratios exceeding 105 percent, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data. Private MIs had little choice in the matter since the Home Affordable Refinance Program allows underwater borrowers to refinance without getting additional MI, or any mortgage insurance if the original loan wasn’t insured. In fact, Fannie and Freddie securitized a total of $27.1 billion of mortgages with LTV ratios over 105 percent, most of which did not have insurance. But most private MI coverage was placed...[Includes one data chart]

About 14.1 percent of the mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the first quarter of 2013 had private mortgage insurance coverage, but those loans were sold by some 1,631 different lenders, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Although Wells Fargo ranked as the top seller of MI-insured loans to the government-sponsored enterprises, with $9.85 billion in volume, over half of those mortgages were originated by correspondent lenders that may have played a role in deciding which private MI to use. Looking only at retail originations, Quicken Loans was...[Includes one data chart]

Bank of America earlier this year finally settled its long-running dispute with Fannie Mae over buyback demands, an agreement that may help open a window to the government-sponsored enterprise that has been limited to refinance loans. During the first quarter of 2013, BofA sold $6.52 billion of mortgages to Fannie – all of them refinance loans. The company hasn’t sold purchase-money mortgages to the GSE since early 2012, when the two broke off new transactions that didn’t involve refinancing of existing Fannie loans serviced by the bank. In fact, BofA only sold...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week issued guidance that spells out procedures for demanding indemnification from lenders participating in the agency’s Lenders Insurance (LI) program for loans deemed ineligible for FHA insurance. The guidance (Mortgagee Letter 2013-10) implements regulation that HUD finalized in January 2012. Indemnification for defective LI loans became even more important for the FHA after an independent actuarial audit in November revealed a negative capital reserve ratio and that a taxpayer bailout seemed imminent. Compliance experts warned that, with the policy changes, the more than ...

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan this week reiterated his agency’s request for additional legislative authority to regulate the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program by mortgagee letter so that much-needed changes can be implemented immediately. Rather than go through the tedious legislative process of amending HECM legislation to improve the program and reduce HECM losses, expanding HUD’s authority would enable the department to undertake immediate reforms, such as restricting lump sum payments, requiring financial assessments of HECM applicants and requiring borrowers to ...

The Department of Justice recently announced enforcement actions against a New York-based FHA lender and its owner/president for fraudulent certification of FHA-insured loans as well as two separate settlements with bank subsidiaries for alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. In the first action, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the HUD Office of the Inspector General jointly announced a civil mortgage fraud lawsuit against ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Mortgagee Review Board slapped 157 FHA lenders during the first nine months of 2012 with various administrative actions, including more than $1.7 million in civil money penalties and indemnifications to HUD for paid and potential claim losses totaling $1.25 million. The MRB, which is HUD’s disciplinary arm, took action against the approved lenders from Jan. 1, 2012, to Sept. 30, 2012. According to a notice published in the April 11 Federal Register, the board withdrew the FHA approval of 130 lenders for failing to ...

Ginnie Mae is seeking feedback from dealers, issuers and investors about whether to continue to maintain two separate mortgage-backed securities programs or to consolidate them under a single security. Comments are also being sought on other possible options. Bloomberg.com recently reported that Ginnie Mae sent out questionnaires to Wall Street broker-dealers for their input on the future of both the Ginnie Mae I and Ginnie Mae II MBS programs. The agency has been considering whether it should merge the programs for some time. The Ginnie Mae I single-issuer pool program with stringent pooling requirements began in ...

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]