pmuolo@imfpubs.com

Now that the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund has a capital ratio of 4.84% – compared to a statutory minimum of 2.00% – there should be all sorts of calls from the industry for a cut in FHA premiums. Right? Right, but it’s been mostly quiet and not one industry lobbyist we’ve spoken to thinks there’s even a remote chance of that happening anytime soon…

Then again, the Trump White House is known for doing unpredictable things – like making a serious effort to get Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released from conservatorship. So perhaps a few months from now, if Trump is trailing in the polls, someone in the administration will suggest it’s a good idea. Never say never…

In remarks before the annual policy meeting of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors this week, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria didn’t pull any punches regarding what he thought of the pre-takeover hubris of the GSEs: “It’s important to keep in mind that, pre-crisis, Fannie and Freddie were companies that fundamentally believed they had nothing to learn from anybody. They didn’t think their regulator had anything to tell them. They didn’t think they had anything to learn from outside parties...”

A fair assessment? GSE historians can discuss it among themselves…

Talking to a handful of attendees at the CSBS meeting this week, one GSE point became clear: Few in attendance believe Congress will create additional GSEs. It’s just not in the cards – politically or otherwise.

THIS JUST IN: On Friday, Fannie Mae said it supports the Alternative Reference Rate Committee’s recommendation to replace the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) with a new index based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) to ensure what it hopes will be a “seamless transition away from LIBOR by the end of 2021.”

Wholesale-Broker Channel Keeps Expanding

Mortgage brokers generated an estimated $84 billion in new first-lien mortgages during the second quarter of 2019. Volume was up 68.0% from the first three months of the year, the biggest gain among the three major production channels, pushing the wholesale-broker share to 14.9%. Keep track of how changes are playing out for the industry and its top performers in originations, servicing and all of the market’s sectors and products with IMF's quarterly Top Mortgage Players report.