Secondary markets

Consumer expectations about the health of the housing market worsened over the summer, according to data released Monday by Fannie Mae.

The nonbank mortgage lender is moving closer to issuing its first private-label mortgage-backed security.

The Federal Housing Administration started selling distressed loans in 2012 to help communities hit hard by foreclosures while also reducing losses to its taxpayer-backed insurance fund.

Bankers joined loan guarantors in pushing the Federal Housing Finance Agency to ease proposed capital rules for mortgage insurers, saying the plan will make borrowing less affordable for homebuyers unless it's revised.

Commercial-mortgage bond buyers are girding for the biggest deluge of offerings in seven years just as the debt becomes harder to sell amid slipping underwriting standards.

Community banks are fighting a plan unveiled by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that would force many banks and thrifts to maintain at least 10% of their assets in the form of home loans or mortgage-backed securities.

New regulation meant to ensure banks have enough easy-to-sell assets to survive a crisis is creating doubt over whether $1.1 trillion of mortgage debt qualifies, potentially hurting demand in a key cog of the U.S. home-finance system.

More regulations and higher costs are causing an increasing number of smaller financial institutions to consider having someone else originate loans for them.

Edward J. DeMarco, who worked to shrink Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) as their U.S. overseer after the 2008 financial crisis, started a new job this week: senior fellow at the Milken Institute's Center for Financial Markets.

The time has come for residential private-label mortgage-backed securities in Canada, but the market will look nothing like the United States'.

Fannie Mae is planning to sell 10-year benchmark debt in the first offering of its type from a government-sponsored enterprise in more than two years, according to FTN Financial.

Los Angeles County is taking steps to restart its Property Assessed Clean Energy residential program by early 2015.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a proposal Tuesday designed to exclude captive insurers from the Home Loan Bank system.

The overseer of the Federal Home Loan Banks is planning changes to membership rules that would keep investment firms and lenders lacking customer deposits out of the U.S. government-chartered system.

Six years after Angelo Mozilo lost control of the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., and days after news that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles plans to sue him, the Countrywide Financial Corp. founder is baffled by a new effort to punish him, proud of past triumphs and incensed by criticism.

Redwood Trust and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago are revving up a program to buy and securitize jumbo loans and looking for signs that other FHLBs will participate.

Such a system will not erase past violations, but it can help convince a regulator that a lender is invested in doing business the "right way."

The Justice Department's recent $16.6 billion deal with Bank of America over crisis-era mortgage fraud has raised fresh questions over a perceived lack of transparency in the settlement process.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded two servicer ratings for Ocwen Loan Servicing, reflecting additional scrutiny by regulators and concerns about the nonbank mortgage servicer's ability to ensure timely payments to bondholders.

Prices of securitized commercial mortgage loans shrank slightly in July, according to DebtX.