Just a week after imposing onerous new capital disclosure requirements on Fannie and Freddie, FHFA adopts a rule requiring them to file annual capital plans.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency acting director said there are lots of questions that must be answered before Fannie and Freddie can exit government supervision.
The mortgage industry has resigned itself to no administrative end to the Fannie and Freddie conservatorships. It’s still unclear what happens to the GSEs’ capital requirements.
Biden’s FHFA nominee Sandra Thompson has made it clear that the agency can’t end the conservatorships without help from the Departments of Treasury and Justice and, most importantly, Congress itself.
The proposed capital planning rule could set the stage for post-conservatorship regulation of the GSEs, but it still relies on capital requirements that the enterprises may not meet for at least a decade.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is “not going to do anything that jeopardizes taxpayers.” But his real concerns? How to adequately capitalize Fannie and Freddie first.