Compliance & Regulation

Fannie Mae will make a $919 million dividend payment to the U.S. Treasury Department after reporting a first-quarter profit driven by fees for guaranteeing loans against default and credit-related income.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Wednesday it had raised a cap on the amount of multifamily loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy from lenders, boosting it to $35 billion effective immediately.

Freddie Mac's second quarterly loss in less than a year makes it clear profitability is getting tougher as it shrinks. But it's a concern that must be weighed against more long-term efforts to reduce Freddie's overall credit risk exposure.

At least one banker has gone public with expectations that the OCC will force his institution to hold more capital. More could soon follow.

Industry groups are urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to end the sweep of profits of the GSEs so that Fannie and Freddie can rebuild capital.

Bank of America Corp. said it reached a $190 million agreement to resolve a six-year-old legal claim from Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle over mortgage-backed securities sold before the financial crisis.

A federal judge approved Goldman Sachs Group's $272 million settlement with investors who claimed the bank misled them about the safety of billions of dollars worth of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Servicing rights are high-yielding assets, making them attractive investments for hedge funds, real estate investment trusts and banks.

Freddie Mac is marketing its 20th offering of Structured Agency Credit Risk notes offloading exposure to defaults on residential mortgages that it insures.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will propose changes in late July to its mortgage disclosure rule to provide "greater certainty and clarity" to the mortgage industry.