Risk

In one corner are groups like the Community Home Lenders Association and the major credit union groups, which are hoping the administration will further cut premiums after a reduction a year ago. On the other are MBA and ICBA, which argue a cut now would be too soon.

Agency and government loan programs will be a little different in the next 12 months. There also will be new rules for private-label securitizations, along with new products available to investors. Here is an overview.

Home Equity Conversion Mortgage servicers have received an additional three months to explore loss mitigation options when borrowers or their spouses have difficulty paying their property taxes and insurance.

Spreads widened on Freddie Mac's latest offering of Structured Agency Credit Risk securities as investors demanded additional compensation for taking on the credit risk of mortgages insured by the company.

Independent mortgage lenders are expecting a wave of consolidation prompted by excessive compliance costs, a tepid housing recovery and the need for more capital to grow their businesses. Roughly 20% to 25% of independent companies could be eliminated or change hands in less than two years.

Recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement actions against lead generation companies emphasize the breadth of lenders' responsibility for the third parties they expose borrower clients to.

Clayton Holdings in Shelton, Conn., has opened a consulting office in Silicon Valley to work with financial technology companies.

Increased enthusiasm for automated valuations presents an opportunity for the appraisal industry to develop tools that combine high-efficiency, low-cost processes with the accuracy of human expertise.

Two Harbors is marketing its first residential mortgage securitization of the year, according to Fitch Ratings.

After defeating an expert in Japanese chess, this computer program's next task is to figure out if you can make the payments on a new mortgage.

Mortgage application defects reached a record low in November, according to First American Financial Corp.

Mid America Mortgage Inc. has created a scratch-and-dent purchase program to buy loans with TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure rule defects.

Fannie Mae's final risk-sharing transaction of the year was with reinsurers.

There could be more willingness among lenders to roll back self-imposed requirements for agency loans in 2016, but secondary-market conditions will be mixed for mortgage sellers while rates and costs are poised to rise.

Affordable apartments have not been this hard to find in decades, and a new Mortgage Bankers Association study suggests there are ways existing public-private partnerships could do more to address the concern.

In their search for ways to shift the credit risk of mortgages from taxpayers to capital markets, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be overlooking important players: the lenders that make these loans in the first place.

Most investors in a JPMorgan survey said they want to ditch the pricing benchmark now used for a variety of asset-backed bonds — the swaps curve — and go back to Treasuries. But it's not so easy.

Ally Financial Inc. is re-entering the mortgage business just two years after it stopped making new home loans.

CarVal Investors, which made its debut in the securitization market just last month, is back with a second helping of bonds backed by reperforming mortgages

The Morgan Stanley settlement follows a similar agreement with Barclays Capital in October that resulted in a recovery of $325 million.