FHFA Mulls Front-End Risk Transfers, But Shows Little Interest in ‘Deeper MI’ Proposal
July 7, 2016
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking for ways to expand the credit-risk transfer programs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but showing little interest in a proposal being pushed by the Mortgage Bankers Association and private mortgage insurers. The regulator of the two government-sponsored enterprises recently issued a request for comment on front-end risk sharing without directly discussing the concept of sellers getting reduced guaranty fees for loans that have more than the required level of private MI coverage. It did, however, cite counterparty risk as one of the key issues in credit-risk transfers. As of Dec. 31, 2015, the GSEs had transferred...