Monday morning cup of coffee

A look at stories across HousingWire’s holiday weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues: The Federal Housing Finance Agency sent three final rules and one advance notice of proposed rule making to the Federal Register last week, pertaining to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. The first rule aims at reducing the maximum number of mortgage portfolio holdings that each government-sponsored enterprise can keep on its balance sheet. As of Dec. 31, 2009, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can hold $900 billion worth of mortgage assets. As of Dec. 31, 2010, each is required to reduce its holdings by 10% of the previous maximum limit. According to the rule, the limit will be reduced by 10% each year until the limit hits $250 billion. “At that point, no further reduction in the maximum limit is currently required,” the rule states. The second rule submitted by the FHFA requires Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks to include women, minorities and individuals with disabilities in all functional activities. It also establishes an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion in each organization. The third rule says the Federal Home Loan Banks must establish housing goals, consistent with those of the FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The FHFA said it is undertaking a review of its regulations governing federal membership to the Home Loan Bank circuit, “to identify provisions that may need to be updated to ensure that they remain consistent with the statutory provisions” concerning bank membership and the overall mission of the Federal Home Loan Banks. Possible amendments to the requirements may be made next year, the FHFA said. Ernst & Young said it plans to “vigorously defend” itself against civil claims brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Last week, Cuomo sued the accounting firm alleging it helped hide Lehman Brothers‘ financial problems. The case was reported by Reuters as, “the first major government legal action stemming from the (Lehman’s) 2008 downfall.” Ernst & Young said there is “no factual or legal basis for a claim to be bought against an auditor in this context,” where accounting for the underlying transaction is in accordance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. “We look forward to presenting the facts in a court of law,” Ernst & Young said in an official statement. General Electric’s finance unit, GE Capital, said it would sell its Mexican consumer mortgage division to Spanish banking giant Santander. According to an article in The New York Times, the deal priced at $2 billion pesos, or $162 million, plus debt. Santander will take over GE Capital’s consumer mortgage unit in Mexico, according to the Times article, including a $2 billion loan portfolio. The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. Mortgage rates decreased slightly for the week ended Dec. 23. According to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market survey, the interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.81%, down from 4.83% the previous week. One year ago, the mortgage interest rate was 5.05%. A 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage also dropped to 4.15% from 4.17%. The rate for a 5-year, Treasury hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage was 3.75% and the rate for a one-year, Treasury ARM was 3.4%. No banks were closed over the holiday weekend by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. A total of 157 banks have been shuttered this year. The FDIC did, however, sell $603 million in home mortgages from failed banks to RoundPoint Financial Group. According to Bloomberg, RoundPoint acquired 40% of the equity of the loan pool. This is the second deal RoundPoint has made with the FDIC concerning mortgage assets from failed banks. Write to Christine Ricciardi.