Secondary

Amid speculation over who will succeed Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman, there are no signs that President Barack Obama has begun a formal search.

Various proposals to restructure the housing finance system call for the creation of a “Market Access Fund” that will replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in funding affordable housing initiatives and research.

Affiliated Mortgage Co., a Monroe, La.-based subsidiary of Texas’ Benchmark Bank, has started a wholesale/mini-correspondent division that is getting started in the Lone Star State with a plan to expand from there.

Investors still want to buy in the commercial mortgage-backed securities sector while performance is relatively good, but they are mindful that recent origination standards are slipping and there are risks in CMBS 1.0 too.

Recent gains in home prices are unsustainable, but “it’s premature to describe the market as being in a bubble” as home values remain below their pre-recession peaks and prices are expected to continue to rise this year, said Standard & Poor’s.

There is $2.41 trillion in outstanding commercial and multifamily real estate at the end of 1Q13, a decline of $4.9 billion from 4Q12, according to data compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

There have been five days of triple digit moves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Monday's market improvement included 13 Mortgage Industry Equity Composite Stocks.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have streamlined their refinancing requirements under the direction of the GSE regulator, but little has been done to ease restrictions on purchase mortgages.

Where industry credit limits stand and why was among the topics discussed by a group of industry executives convened by Origination News at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference in New York.

The upgrades of the master and primary servicer rating reflect the completion of Wells Fargo's Systems Process Integration project and subsequent operational improvements.