Mortgage giant Fannie Mae this week agreed to pay a hefty $400 million fine and implement a number of remedial measures to settle charges of mismanagement and faulty accounting leveled by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. In one of the most significant aspects of the settlement, Fannie agreed to limit its retained mortgage portfolio to Dec. 31, 2005, levels, approximately $727 billion. The government-sponsored enterprise can, however,… Read More

Prime jumbo mortgages were the hardest hit product in the slumping production environment of the first quarter of 2006, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Prime jumbo volume dropped 36 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005 to just $99 billion, or 14.8 percent of total originations. That was more than double the speed of the slowdown in total mortgage originations, which fell 15 percent in the first quarter.… [Three data tables included] Read More

Final guidelines on nontraditional mortgage products could come in the third or fourth quarter of this year, according to a Federal Reserve staffer working on the guidance. Brian Valenti, supervisory financial analyst at the Federal Reserve Board, said he expects final guidance by the end of the year, in comments at this week’s Mortgage Bankers Association nonprime lending and alternative products conference in Washington, DC. Without commenting on what changes the submitted comments might… Read More

A shifting political landscape has thrown control of Congress up for grabs, making it likely that key items on the industry’s agenda could remain unresolved in 2007. “The current political environment, if it were a market, would be termed ‘highly volatile’,” said Kurt Pfotenhauer, senior vice president for government affairs for the Mortgage Bankers Association, summing up the difficult legislative realities facing the industry during remarks at the trade group’s recent conference on nonprime and… Read More

Big changes could be in store at the FHA as two bills that cleared the House Financial Services Committee this week would raise FHA loan limits, create more administrative flexibility to use risk-based pricing and establish a pilot program to insure zero downpayment mortgages. The committee approved H.R. 5121, the “Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2006” and H.R. 3043, the “Zero Downpayment Pilot Program Act of 2005” making way for the full House to consider… Read More

Even though the Department of Housing and Urban Development is hard at work developing proposals to reform the mortgage settlement process, there will be no let-up on the tougher enforcement of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act that the industry has seen over the past year or so. … Read More

Genworth Financial officials are expecting bulk coverage to decline and the flow side to perk up as mortgage interest rates rise and home price appreciation rates slow. In an investor briefing broadcast last week on the Web, officials predicted lower origination volume of loans with piggyback seconds, as well as exotic loan products, in the next several quarters. … Read More