The Federal Housing Finance Agency is backing recommendations for additional authority that would allow it to examine third parties that do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In its 2016 Annual Report to Congress released this week, the FHFA said it concurs with recommendations made by both the Government Accountability Office and the Financial Stability Oversight Council that Congress grant the agency authority to oversee the entities that provide critical services to the government-sponsored enterprises. While counterparty oversight is critical to the safety and soundness of the GSEs, it is...

The Trump administration wants to pare back regulations that inhibit the non-agency MBS and ABS market and tilt current securitization economics that favor the government-sponsored enterprises over private issuers. “In order to revitalize a responsible [private-label securities] market, it is important to improve incentives for issuers through reasonable reductions in costs and regulatory burdens,” the Treasury Department said in a new report released this week. In particular, it aimed at adjusting relative economics for the government-sponsored enterprises and FHA/VA mortgage programs. On the regulatory side, Treasury recommends...

Fannie Mae General Counsel Brian Brooks is rumored to be up for a top post at the Treasury Department, a development that if consummated would add yet another seasoned industry veteran familiar with the government-sponsored enterprises to the agency. What that might mean for “administrative” reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is another question. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press this week, Brooks – who joined Fannie from OneWest Bank in November 2014 – had not been...

This week, the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee provided a bit more information on the process it plans to follow in shrinking the size of its massive balance sheet, once it decides the time is right to finally begin. “Provided that the economy evolves broadly as the committee anticipates, we currently expect to begin implementing a balance sheet normalization program this year,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in her post-meeting press conference. The hope is to initiate an incremental and largely predictable decline in the U.S. central bank’s securities holdings. The FOMC intends...

Ginnie Mae hit a milestone in the MBS market during the first quarter of 2017, edging past Freddie Mac to become the second-largest supplier of single-family MBS in the world. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals $1.705 trillion of Ginnie 1-4 family MBS outstanding at the end of March, a 2.2 percent increase in just three months. Meanwhile, outstanding single-family Freddie MBS rose 0.7 percent to $1.703 trillion. Both Ginnie and Freddie accounted...[Includes two data tables]

The Trump administration plans to issue a request for information (RFI) regarding a Department of Labor final rule currently on hold that would raise the annual salary threshold for employee exemption from overtime pay. Testifying before the House Committee on Appropriations last week, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said the proposed RFI would seek public comment regarding the economic or anticipated impact of raising the annual salary requirement for overtime exemption from the current $23,660 to $47,476, as the previous administration had proposed. The Obama administration issued...

The House of Representatives last week passed sweeping legislation that would repeal or modify consumer protection provisions of the Obama-era Dodd-Frank Act, including an overhaul of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure and authority as well as changes to the rulemaking process followed by the CFPB and federal banking agencies. The House approved H.R. 10, the Financial Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs (CHOICE) Act, on June 8 by a vote of 233-186, along party lines. The bill was sent to the Senate, where Republicans enjoy a narrow majority and would have to win over some Democrats to get the bill through. Under the Republican bill, the CFPB would be renamed...

Mortgage lenders that expect to close on a pending home-equity line-of-credit near the end of this year may run afoul of the new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if the HELOC doesn’t close on time, compliance experts cautioned this week. That’s because the CFPB created a compliance gap by failing to establish a rule to guide industry conduct during the transition from the current reporting regime to the new one. At least that’s the assessment of some top HMDA professionals during a break-out session at the 2017 American Bankers Association regulatory compliance conference in Orlando this week. The crux of the problem is...

The most challenging aspect of complying with the pending amendments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage servicing rule will be implementing the successors-in-interest provisions, according to industry experts. Most of the revisions to the rule, issued last year by the CFPB, take effect Oct. 19, 2017. But the successor-in-interest requirements kick in April 19, 2018. Addressing an audience at the 2017 American Bankers Association regulatory compliance conference in Orlando this week, compliance professionals broke...

The market for mortgage mergers and acquisitions is beginning to heat up with talk about who’s in – and who might be out. According to investment banking officials speaking under the condition they not be identified, Caliber Home Loans and Flagstar Bancorp continue to make their intentions known as buyers. “Caliber is looking to make a big splash,” noted one advisor who said he’s been contacted by the privately held lender. “And they have money behind them too.” That “money” would be...