Secondary

The congressional stalemate over how to restructure the housing finance system leaves several questions unanswered about other bank regulations currently in the pipeline.

The government is not providing enough support to serve a wider range of homeowners, many lenders say. But it's doubtful that the private market can do much better at this point.

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are retaining more high-quality, conforming mortgages that they would normally sell to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, raising concerns that the banks are adversely selecting the weakest loans for the government-sponsored enterprises.

Fannie Mae sold $1.6 billion of risk-sharing debt to investors who today accepted the same yields on securities that wager on the default rates of riskier mortgages as on bonds tied to safer loans.

A joint effort by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop new technology for issuing mortgage-backed securities needs cost controls and a schedule, the auditor of the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

Freddie Mac has long struggled to compete with larger rival Fannie Mae because the former's mortgage-backed securities trade at a discount to the latter's. Their new regulator may change that.

The trade group is now predicting $1.05 trillion of volume for this year as unemployment and tepid wage growth hold back homebuying.

The mortgage life support provided by the federal government since the crash is ebbing. It will be interesting to see if the industry can breathe on its own now.

The normally even-keeled moderate Sen. Mark Warner warned fellow Democrats voting against a housing finance reform that when Fannie and Freddie need another taxpayer bailout, it will be their fault.

Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee sounded off against bipartisan legislation to overhaul the mortgage finance system on Thursday, opposition that likely all but ruins the bill's chances of making it to the chamber floor this year.