Secondary markets

Mortgage lender outlooks improved during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new sentiment survey from government sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae.

Freddie Mac will offer its first external 55-day participation certificate pass-through security, the government-sponsored enterprise announced Monday.

But derivatives that magnified their performance woes were the bigger culprit, according to a new book by investor Howard Hill, who created models for collateralized mortgage obligations before the meltdown.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp.'s earnings fell in the fourth quarter to $8.9 million, down from $13.4 million during the same period in 2013.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group helped fuel a bubble that led to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, an attorney for the Federal Housing Finance Agency said at the opening of a trial over defective mortgage-backed securities.

Ed DeMarco, the former chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warned that efforts under the Obama Administration to expand access to credit could risk repeating mistakes that led up to the crisis.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis is again admitting mortgage-investment firms as members, even as the overseer of the government-chartered system of 12 regional lenders considers barring such companies.

Nomura Holdings Inc. will defend claims by a U.S. regulator that it sold defective mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the 2008 financial crisis, becoming the first bank to take such a case to trial.

The two prevalent forms of private-label RMBS representation and warranty frameworks that became popular following the financial crisis do a good job of detecting defective loans, according to Moody's Investor Service.

Real estate investment trust ZAIS Financial Corp.'s acquisition of privately owned mortgage company GMFS proved to be highly dilutive to earnings.

J.G. Wentworth Co. has reached an agreement to acquire WestStar Mortgage in a cash and stock deal.

Proposals for stiffer capital requirements will reduce the number of mortgage servicers, which in turn will cut access to credit, mortgage-company executives said at an industry conference on Wednesday.

Fannie Mae selected a chief internal auditor with an "inherent conflict of interest" and the mortgage giant's process for filling the position was faulty, according to a watchdog report to be released Wednesday.

Bondholders in CMBS with exposure to Macerich Co. would be wise to watch how Simon Property Group's $22.4 billion bid for the mall operator unfolds.

The new Pimco managers of the world's largest bond fund are embracing the mortgage securities that Bill Gross shunned.

Consumer sentiment towards receiving a mortgage and the direction of the overall economy reached new highs in February, according to a Fannie Mae survey.

Four years after agreeing to an initial settlement, Bank of America has won court approval for its $8.5 billion settlement with investors over Countrywide's mortgage practices. Here's an update on all the other big mortgage litigation outstanding.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has priced a secondary offering of 10 million shares of common stock at $17 per share.

Mortgage rates have dropped for the first time in four weeks, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Michael Stegman, a top housing policy adviser, urged regulators on Thursday to bring more private capital into the market, even in the absence of legislative momentum.