Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, released his much-anticipated proposal, the Bipartisan Housing Finance Reform Act of 2018, for housing-finance reform last week but industry observers say it has little or no chance of making any headway. In fact, Hensarling said if reform stalls in this Congress or the next, he would advocate for the administration to tackle reform when a new Federal Housing Finance Agency director is named in January. He released the “discussion draft” the day of a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Sept. 6, the 10-year anniversary of the conservatorship. The bill would transition to a system where qualified mortgages backed by government-approved guarantors with regulated capital can access the...
If the Bipartisan Housing Finance Reform Act of 2018 becomes law, the common securitization platform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be transferred to a nonprofit “exchange” along with their automated underwriting systems, Desktop Underwriter and Loan Prospector, respectively. Among other things, the bill – introduced by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, -TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would require that the AU systems “be made available for public use.”...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should standardize their programs and policies that impact cash flows in preparation for the new Uniform Mortgage Backed Security, according to a proposed rule issued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency this week. The proposed rule incorporates recent input from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. The regulator noted that standardizing policies that affect cash flows to investors in to-be-announced MBS will benefit market participants and homeowners. “By instituting regulations that further standardize those products, the proposed rule and the UMBS would reduce complexity and the cost of analytics set to be introduced in the second quarter of 2019,” said the FHFA, adding that it will also help encourage a broader investor base.
Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton will retire in the second half of next year, the GSE announced last week. This comes six weeks after Fannie CEO Timothy Mayopoulos announced his departure from the GSE. While Layton plans to be around through midyear 2019, Mayopoulos plans to leave his post before 2018 ends. This leaves both GSEs looking for replacements. Freddie’s board has started its succession plan to consider internal and external candidates. The GSE named David Brickman, executive vice president and head of Freddie’s multifamily business as a possibility.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency should not have approved Fannie Mae’s July request to sell its three buildings in Northern Virginia and consolidate to newly constructed office space, according to a new management alert from the FHFA Office of Inspector General.The report, published late last week, questioned the decision to allow Fannie to consolidate and relocate to newly leased space, built out to specifications. The IG noted that Fannie failed to demonstrate that the move would be in the best interest of taxpayers. In fact, the report said four officials in the FHFA’s Division of Conservatorship told the IG that Fannie faced no “action forcing” event that required it...
The boards of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have begun their searches for new CEOs but the odds of finding successful candidates quickly are extremely low, according to industry stakeholders.
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