Secondary

From selling servicing rights along with the loans to issuing private-label securities, a host of strategies from the past could return to the market as a result of the new political climate and interest rate environment.

Mortgage rates moved higher, closing the year with nine consecutive weeks of increases, according to Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae's Day 1 Certainty initiative and automated verification tools at Freddie Mac are set to improve mortgage loan application defect and misrepresentation risk in 2017, according to a report from First American Financial Corp.

Proponents of "recap and release" misread the political risks and the depth of interest that key lawmakers have in determining the long-term future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A recent piece making light of GSE recapitalization is dangerously misleading.

It's unclear how the new political environment will affect the platform's viability or how investors will view the securities issued on it. The next year could determine the project's success and role reshaping the secondary mortgage market.

Opus Bank has completed a $509 million securitization of its multifamily loans through a Freddie Mac-sponsored "Q-deal" risk-transfer securitization.

Deutsche Bank will have to clear a lower capital hurdle next year, joining other European lenders who are benefiting from a change in how the European Central Bank sets the requirements.

It is not a clear-cut statement to say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need more capital, and it detracts from the real debate over long-term housing finance reform.

Congress wants to put the federal flood program on sounder financial footing, encourage the development of a private flood insurance market and stop the insanity of rebuilding properties subject to repetitive flooding.