Economy

The commercial real estate lender, which is controlled by Canadian and Singapore sovereign wealth funds, included some unusual features in the deal, such as a two-year revolving period.

Stabilizing farm incomes are expected to help boost the performance of the sponsor's managed portfolio, which experienced a rise in 2015-2017 delinquencies, as well, according to ratings agency reports.

In a bid to cut time and costs from the mortgage process, Fannie Mae is testing whether appraisers can accurately determine a home's value without actually visiting the property.

Freddie Mac has quietly started extending credit to nonbanks that issue mortgages, a move it says will help the companies maintain access to a crucial stockpile of cash if their home loans go sour.

Fannie Mae's first-quarter profits were enough for it to rebuild its minimum capital buffer and pay the Treasury Department dividend after being forced to take a draw during the previous fiscal period.

In its latest effort to reach first time home buyers, Freddie Mac is launching a new 3% down payment program that casts aside a number of restrictions in its existing low down payment offerings.

If Freddie Mac's credit-risk transfer activities continue to grow, mortgage lenders could eventually see a reduction in the guarantee fees they pay to the government-sponsored enterprise, according to CEO Donald Layton.

Borrowers can get better rates elsewhere, so they're repaying ahead of schedule, leaving banks in the lurch. The steps lenders would have to take to keep the business could be prohibitively expensive.

The future secondary mortgage market entities will receive high investment grade ratings, even as there is no clarity on their scope or form, Fitch Ratings said.

The increase in the delinquency rate for securitized CRE loans for March ended an eight-month streak of declines.

Momentum to overhaul the mortgage finance system had been slipping, and with Democrats divided over the Senate's banking relief bill there's virtually no chance more bipartisan deals can be worked out.

The annual progress report on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conservatorships reiterated that a new credit score model will likely not be operational until after the implementation of a new Single Security Initiative.

Freddie Mac and Arch Capital are testing a new form of risk-sharing deal to boost investor appetite for low down payment mortgages. But the pilot is raising concerns about "charter creep" because it dictates private mortgage insurance decisions typically made by lenders.

A late addition to regulatory relief legislation would direct the Federal Housing Finance Agency to review credit-scoring alternatives, but some say the provision is redundant.

Former Rep. Barney Frank rejected concerns voiced by other Democrats that a Senate bill rolling back some provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act will fuel another financial crisis.

An unprecedented, industrywide survey of sexual harassment in the professional workplace reveals industries with the highest prevalence of unwanted sexual behavior, the differences between large and small companies, and blind spots that may be preventing corrections. Fortunately, the data also lights a path forward.

From inappropriate touching to belittling comments, women advisors confront workplace environments that are far from welcoming.

The transaction fills out the original available $7 billion capacity of the Sprint Spectrum trust program, which markets notes backed by the sale-leaseback receivables from Sprint's portfolio of spectrum licenses.

Essent Guaranty is marketing $360.75 million of notes linked to the performance of a pool of residential mortgages that it insures; its following in the footsteps of Arch Capital.

The success of the government-sponsored enterprises' credit risk transfer programs shows that they can be the basis for housing finance reform.