A letter from 45 Congressmen that circulated in early March urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reform their nonperforming loan programs prompted two committee chairs to ask the agencies to reject the changes. They said the proposals are only “advancing political agendas.” Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and Richard Shelby, R-AL, chairman on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, penned a letter to the FHFA and HUD on March 21 stating that many of the changes suggested by housing advocates and Congress would negatively impact the program’s fundamental purpose.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s oversight of GSE compensation based on scorecard performance was found to be “insufficiently robust,” according to the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General, but the agency disagreed. A recently released report found that the agency accepted the GSEs’ annual at-risk compensation proposals without any verification or challenge for accuracy. The OIG said while in 2011 the FHFA said it had adopted internal controls to test and verify procedures to improve the oversight of compensation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives; it learned that the FHFA discontinued that system in 2012 after adopting a new GSE executive compensation structure.
Housing advocates and civil rights groups laud the GSEs’ first payment, $180 million, to the National Housing Trust Fund in years. It’s part of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s efforts to support underserved markets through affordable housing, which organizations have long been calling for. But many are also worried about what the future holds for the GSEs. Wade Henderson, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights calls it “another significant measure taken by FHFA Director Mel Watt to shore up the commitments made to communities of color that expand affordable and sustainable housing finance.” He added that strengthening...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General released five reports this week examining everything from corporate governance to examiner issues. The two reports released on March 31 focused on the board’s of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The OIG found that the there are “serious deficiencies” in the GSEs boards when it comes to managing Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s remediation efforts. The report said the board could become “no more than a bystander to management’s efforts to remediate matters requiring attention.” One of the reports also noted that while the board has made progress in overseeing cyber risk, much more needs to be done.
Comments are being vetted regarding a proposed survey to collect information from borrowers in the second quarter of 2016 that will be used in a report highlighting the GSEs’ mortgage activities. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s American Survey of Existing Borrowers, formerly referred to as the National Survey of Existing Mortgage Borrowers, has drawn a some criticism from trade groups concerned about privacy violations. The survey questionnaire, a component of the larger National Mortgage Database project, will include about 90 questions designed to gather information from borrows about their mortgage experience and possible challenges. The NMDB is a multi-year joint effort between the FHFA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
As manufactured housing advocates continue to push for chattel lending, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is weighing whether it will allow the loans that are based on financing the home itself rather than the real estate property. The topic made a strong showing in the FHFA’s recent request for comment in which questions about serving the manufactured housing industry were included under its duty-to-serve proposed rule. One of the questions specifically focused on whether a pilot program should be developed that would allow chattel loans. Many commenters said Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac should increase their support for the manufactured housing industry and that includes creating a market for chattel lending.
Fannie Launches Marketing Center. Fannie Mae’s new Marketing Center, introduced this week, is a free online tool providing lenders and other housing professionals access to a variety of customizable marketing materials including HomeReady mortgage, HARP, and more. Freddie’s Second ACIS CTR of 2016: Freddie Mac announced its latest ACIS credit risk transaction, which is its second for 2016. This new transaction provides credit loss protection up to a combined maximum limit of approximately $336 million of losses on single-family loans. White House GSE Advisor Steps Down. White House senior policy advisor on housing and GSE issues Michael Stegman is expected to step down from his post sometime this week, according to industry sources.
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