Capital markets

Fearing that housing finance reform has fallen off the congressional priority list, bank and housing trade groups sent a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt on Wednesday to draw attention to the issue.

JPMorgan Chase's next residential mortgage securitization looks a lot like the six deals it completed in 2015: it is backed by jumbo loans to high-quality borrowers that the bank acquired from other originators.

Without the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau setting specific debt collection guidelines — including what technology agencies can use — the industry will continue a practice that harms consumers: lawsuits.

MFA Financial has carved out an impressive niche for itself by buying reperforming and nonperforming residential mortgages and securities.

Mortgage rates were up slightly from last week in continued anticipation of a possible move by the Federal Reserve, but still near three-year lows, according to Freddie Mac.

When the administration changes at the end of the year, the development of a single mortgage-backed security could suffer a setback, Mortgage Bankers Association CEO Dave Stevens said Wednesday.

The California Association of Realtors has renewed its push for promised Federal Housing Administration guidance that would make Property Assessed Clean Energy liens subordinate to first mortgage liens.

Several civil rights and community development groups wrote Tuesday to urge the Federal Housing Finance Agency to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is set to make the sales of nonperforming loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more transparent, including providing information on trends at the individual pool level, according to a top agency official.

Banks have rushed to the exits when it comes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt securities. Federal liquidity rules seem to be prompting big banks to do so, but why small banks are unloading the bonds, too, is more of a puzzler.

After a series of recommendations this year that didn't quite go as planned, Goldman Sachs has a new top trade idea.

The bank's new low-down-payment mortgage, an alternative to FHA loans, dispenses with the complex qualification requirements that have hampered recent efforts with low down payments by Fannie and Freddie.

Recent legislative proposals to make piecemeal changes to the government-sponsored enterprises could set broader GSE reform on the wrong path.

New research findings challenge common assumptions about borrower behavior, illustrating how trended data — something mortgage lenders will soon be required to collect — could be a game-changer.

FHFA Director Mel Watt also reiterated concerns regarding insurance companies and large bank members, saying that some Home Loan Banks have large exposures to a few individual members.

The due-diligence firms that vet loans before securitization are erring on the side of caution when assessing the risk to investors of liability from the new consumer mortgage disclosure rules.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Deutsche Bank AG inflated the value of securities in its mortgage-bond trading business and masked losses around 2013, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide Financial unit was exonerated of allegations that it sold defective residential mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an appeals court throwing out a judgment against the bank of more than $1.2 billion.

Paramount Group is closing a real estate debt fund that has $775 million in commitments.

The secondary marketing agency wants to model how servicers' available cash might stand up to shocks because interruptions to that liquidity have been a common problem among those that failed.