dhollier@imfpubs.com

The Departments of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development Thursday afternoon released the Trump administration’s long-awaited plan for reforming the nation’s housing-finance system and ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As most observers expected, the plan leaves most of the important details for Congress or the Federal Housing Finance Agency to figure out.

For the most part, though, Treasury stuck to the principles laid out for them in President Trump’s March memorandum: ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, facilitating competition in the housing-finance market, minimizing the risk to taxpayers, and ensuring the federal government is compensated for any explicit or implicit guarantee it provides to the GSEs.

Although the report notes that the administration’s preference is for legislative reform, the plan emphasizes that reform “should not and need not wait on Congress.” To that end, Treasury offered 49 specific proposals for reform, including both legislative and administrative actions. For more details, see the latest Inside the GSEs...