Finance

Mortgage bankers funded roughly $41 billion of jumbo loans in the fourth quarter, a 28% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Management at Ally Financial Corp. is considering throwing part of its mortgage division into bankruptcy and then executing a sale of most of its "good" assets, investment banking sources said late Thursday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is willing to back a GSE-related refinancing bill introduced by Sen. Al Franken, D., Minn., but wants assurances that the industry will no longer be hit with buyback requests on loans that are several years old.

For the second time in less than a year, Colony Financial Inc., Los Angeles, has raised fresh capital through a stock offering.

It is better to address the future of the GSEs now rather than wait for stability in the market because if it is done at that time, it would reintroduce instability, Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan told the Regional Conference of the Mortgage Bankers Associations in Atlantic City.

Beginning July 16, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks will no longer be allowed to deal in mortgages on properties encumbered by private transfer fee covenants that do not benefit the property.

The great land rush to riches in the jumbo securitization market appears to have hit a brick wall.

Credit union executives urged Congress this morning to step in and alleviate a rapidly growing list of new regulations affecting credit unions and banks.

The apartment market is recovering nicely and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are enjoying the ride.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday sued the former top executives of now defunct 'super' jumbo lender Thornburg Mortgage, accusing the trio of hiding the firm's deteriorating financial condition and overstating income by $400 million.

Prior to the crackup of the housing market, most warehouse providers were ready, willing and able to extend credit to nonbank lending customers based on the value of their retained servicing rights. But then came the crash.

Stonegate Mortgage, a fast growing nonbank lender based in Indianapolis, has received a $25 million investment form private equity fund, Long Ridge Equity Partners, and plans to use the money to grow both its servicing portfolio and third-party lending channels.

Part of an agreement with regulators that could result in principal reductions planned for 200,000 residential mortgages owned or serviced by Bank of America as could benefit the bank but could be neutral to negative for some residential mortgage-backed securities bondholders, according to a recent Fitch report.

While Fitch's February CMBS delinquency data showed relative stability overall compared to the previous month and a year ago, there were some variations in sub-markets such as a high level of 60-day late payments in Atlanta office loans.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing's rating as a special servicer to 'SQ2-' from 'SQ2'.

The outstanding amount of home mortgages as of 4Q11 fell $40 billion quarter-over-quarter and $240 billion year-over-year to $10.3 trillion, Standard & Poor's analysts noted, citing the Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data.

In one of the most ambitious lawsuits of its kind so far, Space Coast Credit Union has filed a civil damage claim against several investment banking firms that sold $150 million of mortgage-backed CDOs to Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, which failed in 2009, and was then acquired by Space Coast.

Freddie Mac executives believe the GSE has passed an important milestone regarding the firm's 2005 to 2008 books of business that could lead to a much stronger financial performance in its single-family business going forward.

It would appear that certain politicians - both left and right - look at guarantee fees and say to themselves: Hey, here's a way to raise some revenue and no one will blame us for taxing mortgage lenders. Well, guess again.

While Fannie Mae continues to bleed red ink like a busted crankcase, Freddie Mac turned a profit in the fourth quarter. Overall, it earned $1.5 billion -- but then had to give its "Godfather" (the U.S. Treasury) $1.7 billion in protection money, er, I mean, dividends. Sounds a bit screwy to me but then again the past 10 years in this industry have been screwy.