Secondary markets

The California Supreme Court's recent ruling that a borrower has the right to challenge a wrongful foreclosure opens the door for a tighter mortgage market while leaving key questions about future borrower lawsuits unanswered.

Five policy heavy-hitters issued a proposal this week to merge Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a single government corporation as a way to move beyond the conservatorships of the two government-sponsored enterprises.

Two senior GOP lawmakers are warning regulators against preferential treatment for housing advocates and nonprofits in sales of nonperforming, government-guaranteed mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency appears poised finally to allow principal reductions, but it's been nearly a decade since the mortgage crisis and underwater borrowers are much fewer thanks to higher home values.

The agency may finally be reaching resolution on whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow principal reductions, two years into Director Mel Watt's tenure as agency director and nearly a decade after the mortgage bubble burst.

Fannie Mae is marketing its second offering of the year of Connecticut Avenue Securities transferring the credit risk on mortgages that it insures.

Fitch Ratings believes the market disruption caused by mortgages that fail to comply with a new consumer disclosure rules is out of proportion to amount of risk posed to investors.

A $6.2 billion, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bulk portfolio of mortgage servicing rights has gone up for auction, with final bids due March 29.

As a handful of new issuers enter the market and the implementation of a key regulation pave the way for subprime securitization's comeback, the volume of new loans that are actually available to the market remains a question.

MetaSource in Salt Lake City has acquired Titan Lenders Corp. to bolster its mortgage outsourcing and technology capabilities.

The Manufactured Housing Institute is calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to push the government-sponsored enterprises to purchase chattel loans.

A small Connecticut bank takes the plunge into mobile-friendly mortgages in a bid to turn an attractive pool of student-loan borrowers into lifetime customers.

W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital shut its doors after it was stuck with nonagency loans with TILA/RESPA integrated disclosure issues that it couldn't sell.

While the $1.9 billion of bonds are not guaranteed by the government, most of the underlying loans could have been sold to Fannie and Freddie, and the transaction accomplishes the same thing as the GSEs' risk-transfer deals.

Ginnie Mae needs more and better paid staff to keep up with growing risks on nonbank seller/servicers, the watchdog agency head said.

JPMorgan Chase is preparing one of the largest private-label mortgage securitizations since the financial crisis.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is exploring ways to use $40 million it received as part of a private-label securities settlement to support small business development and job creation to help future homebuyers.

The American Bankers Association's mortgage subsidiary, ABA Community Bank Mortgage, has chosen BOK Financial Correspondent Lending to be its newest secondary market investor.

QRM clarified the rules of the road for securitizations. Now, participants in the MBS world seeking better margins are looking beyond the safe harbor — to the subprime space.

Losses on commercial mortgages declined in February, with a Florida shopping center topping the list of the largest losses, according to Trepp.