Finance

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Friday declared that the new CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — whoever that person might be — will earn no more than $500,000 per year, a major reduction in pay from the current job holders.

Freddie Mac posted net "comprehensive" earnings $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, but must turn around and pay the U.S. Treasury a $1.7 billion dividend, which means it ultimately lost money during the period.

Old Republic International Corp.'s liquidity is "moderately tighter than previously expected," warned Fitch Ratings. This places greater uncertainty on ORI's ability to fund a potential debt acceleration.

Pressure from housing groups this week succeeded in thwarting a Senate amendment to a transportation bill that would have raised guarantee fees on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loans to pay for Gulf Coast reclamation projects.

Suddenly, it appears that mortgage banking is hot. Okay, maybe hot is not the best word, but in the past few weeks two residential-related IPOs have hit the market: Nationstar Mortgage, and Home Loan Servicing Solutions. Both are specialty servicers (of sorts), though the latter is really just a shell corporation created to unlock MSR value for Ocwen Financial Corp. (Or maybe I'm being too critical?)

The Prestwick Mortgage Group will auction off a $13 million portfolio of bulk Freddie Mac residential servicing rights owned by a national bank.

Several liberal House members pressed President Obama on Wednesday to fire the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Edward DeMarco, if he continues to oppose writing down underwater mortgages.

The 9.37% CMBS delinquency rate in February was lower both sequentially and compared to year-ago monthly figures by Trepp LLC's measure, but the company notes that whether this is a true sign of improvement depends in part on the fate of paying loans that are past their maturity date but have not yet been modified, refinanced or foreclosed upon.

Some prepayment reports are showing certain agency MBS speeds are picking up a bit, and at least one suggests that new FHA mortgage insurance premium changes could have a slight, mixed effect on Ginnie Mae bonds going forward.

The new premium structure for FHA-backed single-family loans will increase receipts by $1 billion per year to bolster the government's mortgage insurance fund, keeping it out of the red. But it could also reduce demand and curtail FHA lending by 30% by the end of fiscal year 2013, according to new projections.

Mortgage application volume declined by 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended March 2, as the market share of refinance apps hit their lowest point since December, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Data for the previous week was adjusted for Presidents Day.

Idiosyncrasies in regional markets appear to be among the reasons securitized multifamily overall has rebounded so quickly in terms of occupancy and rental increases but is one of the worst performing property types in terms of delinquencies, according to Fitch.

Investors in Government National Mortgage Association MBS have little to fear from FHA's effort to juice its streamline refinancing program, according to analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

The CMBS market appears to be looking up performance-wise, but there may be less of it in terms of outstandings, and despite stronger originations, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

Nationstar Mortgage and an affiliate company, Newcastle Investment Corp., have agreed to acquire roughly $63 billion in mortgage servicing rights from Aurora Bank FSB, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Lehman Bros.

Bank of America issued just $7.9 billion of GNMA-backed MBS in the fourth quarter, a 71% plunge from the same period in 2010, according to new figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Fannie Mae said Monday it has taken its first step in providing additional loan-level disclosures by releasing a series of at-issuance data.

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions told leaders of the Senate Banking Committee last week that the credit union industry, which is emerging as one of the most important players in the home loan market, is opposed to any mortgage reforms that would include elimination of the federal guarantee on loans sold on the secondary market currently through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A federal judge has ordered the former CEO of Brookstreet Securities Corp. to pay a maximum $10 million penalty in a securities fraud case related to the financial crisis.

Commercial mortgage-backed securities special servicers have increased their activity over the past two months with roughly $3.7 billion in newly modified loans, according to an FTN Financial report.