Secondary Market

Two Senators are drafting legislation that could potentially break up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to Bloomberg, in an effort to increase competitiveness in the secondary mortgage market? How do they plan on doing this, and what repercussions might legislation such as this have on the mortgage finance industry?

Fannie Mae is making moves again—this time it has completed its second set of traditional Credit Insurance Risk Transfer. Read on to find the amount of coverage the GSE received and the terms of the deal.

OrangeGrid, a provider of highly configurable business process workflow solutions to the financial services industry, announced that Barry Owens, a seasoned professional with nearly three decades industry experience, has joined its growing team as VP of business development.

When employers quantify their satisfaction with their CEOs in a customer service heavy industry, how do mortgage professionals and servicers compare to leaders in other industries? What are the criteria to building a successful business and keeping your employees happy? Two industry CEO’s made a recently released top 100 list, and one shares his view to the future.

The May 2017 Existing Home Sales Index was released Tuesday, showing that even though inventory is slightly on the rise compared to April 2017, median home prices are still increasing as well. Existing, unsold properties are coming off the market at record times, and foreclosures and short sales are contributing factors. Some industry professionals, however, wonder how long this trend will last.

Freddie Mac announced Tuesday it has had its second Freddie Mac Seasoned Loan Transaction (SLST) via auction of 1,262 seasoned re-performing loans (RPL) and moderate delinquent loans serviced by Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc. Through its advisors, Freddie Mac began marketing the transaction to potential bidders May 17, 2017, and is expected to settle in July 2017. The winning bidder, Towd Point Master Funding, LLC, was followed by a bid in the high $70s.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, PHH Mortgage Corporation has closed the sale of nearly its entire Freddie Mac portfolio of mortgage servicing rights (MSR) to New Residential Mortgage, LLC—about 81,500 loans. New Residential picked up the portfolio for approximately $110 million. Of that sum, $101.5 million was attributable to the purchase rights for the Freddie Mac MSR portfolio and $8.5 million was for related servicing advances.

In a recent interview, a prominent hedge fund manager said the legal battle with the U.S. government regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s profits could last another five years. In 2012, investors sued Fannie and Freddie for agreeing to allocate the profit in a different way than what they thought they agreed to when investing in the GSEs, but recently it’s seemed the government is siding more with the Treasury and Federal Housing and Finance Agency than investors. If the Trump administration doesn’t stop the profit sweep, the fund manager said the Supreme Court could be the next step.

Monday, Fannie Mae reported that they expect a rebound in economic growth and consumer spending will resume its position as the biggest contributor. With labor and inventory shortages still prevalent, the housing market hasn’t changed very much and home prices are still on the rise. Based on their research, Fannie expects mortgage rates to remain supportive, but the outlook on existing home sales remains cautious.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released recently its exhaustive annual 2016 Report to Congress, where it highlights actions it has taken over the year to support and maintain the nation’s housing industry. The 120 page report covers, amongst others: a report of the annual examination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (The Enterprises), reports of annual examinations of the Federal Home Loan Banks, the results of stress tests under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Consumer Protection Act. You can find some of the report’s highlights here.