As the clock ticks down on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac running out of a capital buffer in early 2018, there is a growing belief in the mortgage industry that the Federal Housing Finance Agency will move to change dividends payments by the two from a quarterly to an annual basis. If the FHFA pulls the trigger, it would allow the government-sponsored enterprises to sit on a pile of cash before upstreaming it to Treasury – money that would give them a buffer if rates turn the wrong way and a hedging loss ensues in a given quarter. Ron Haynie, senior vice president of mortgage policy at the Independent Community Bankers of America, told...