After raising the benchmark interest rate for its standard modification program twice in the last three months,Fannie Mae is set to drop the benchmark rate back down to the lowest level it’s ever been.

Beginning Sept. 15, Fannie Mae will lower its required interest rate for standard modifications from 4.25% to 4%.

The standard modification rate has only been that low three other times since the modification interest rate was first established in Jan. 2012.

Read on.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut are charging three former Nomura Securities Internationalresidential mortgage-backed securities traders with fraud, accusing the trio of “repeatedly lying” to customers about the pricing information of mortgage bonds and defrauding customers of millions of dollars.

The SEC alleges that while employed as RMBS traders at Nomura, Ross Shapiro, Michael Gramins, and Tyler Peters misrepresented the bids and offers being provided to Nomura for RMBSs, as well as the prices at which Nomura bought and sold the securitizations and the spreads the firm earned intermediating RMBS trades.

According to the SEC, Shapiro, Gramins and Peters also trained, coached, and directed junior traders at the firm to engage in the same misconduct.

The SEC stated that the actions of Shapiro, Gramins and Peters helped to “illicitly generate” millions of dollars in additional revenue for Nomura.

In a…