Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are gearing up to play key roles in the Obama administration’s effort to modify millions of subprime, Alt A and even jumbo mortgages – in addition to absorbing significant costs in modifying distressed GSE loans. The Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable loan modification program will funnel $75 billion into incentives for... Read More

The Financial Accounting Standards Board made a few decisions last week that were initially expected to benefit the Federal Home Loan Banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and numerous other financial institutions that have taken a pounding to their bottom lines thanks to the economy’s extended woes, the depressed housing market, and the steady decline seen in market valuations of mortgage-related... Read More

Most of the top sellers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw robust increases in the business they do with the two GSEs during the first quarter, churning out $219.44 billion in new loans for the pair, much of it due to a surge of refinance business. The updated ranking, provided by the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database, also showed that the GSE seller world... [Includes one chart] Read More

The ambitious Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan unveiled recently by the Obama administration has yet to really get off the ground, but already three significant differences are emerging between the approaches that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will take in implementing it. The first divergence relates to valuation policies. Freddie lets lenders use its Home Value... Read More

Top executives at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks face another assault on their compensation in the wake of the “AIG rage” that gripped Capitol Hill a few weeks ago, only with a more tightly drawn target. However, there may be a loophole by which they can escape. Last week, lawmakers on Capitol Hill lashed out at top executives in the financial services... Read More

Uncle Sam snapped up another $121.65 billion of “agency” mortgage-backed securities and GSE debt in the last two weeks, bringing its support for the U.S. residential mortgage market to $605.38 billion since its efforts in this regard began in September 2008. Of that, at least $474.79 billion has gone to support Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks... Read More

Fannie Mae faces a once-unimaginable prospect of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in just over a month if its stock price can’t break the $1.00 threshold. Back in November, the NYSE told Fannie it failed to satisfy one of the stock exchange’s standards for continued listing of its common stock because the average closing price of Fannie’s common stock during the... Read More

The “other-than-temporary” impairment saga continues with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, which recently announced it could not file its annual form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission due to a sudden discovery that it might have to take even deeper writedowns on its non-agency mortgage-backed securities holdings than it had anticipated. The Boston Bank initially... Read More

FASB Moves Could Ease OTTI Burden on FHLBanks' Affordable Housing Program: Before the Financial Accounting Standards... Brokers Withdraw Appraisal Code Suit Against the FHFA: One day after reportedly asking members of Congress for help in blocking the... FHFA Extends Public Comment Period On FHLB Capital Classifications:The Federal Housing Finance Agency has extended to May 15 the time... Read More