Calabria is a former director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank that would like to do away Fannie and Freddie…
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week that he’s committed to housing-finance reform, wants to maintain the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and get more private capital back into the housing market.
Treasury would be barred from selling or disposing of “any senior preferred shares, any interest in the warrants, any common shares acquired upon the exercise of the warrants, or any other equity interest that were acquired pursuant to the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement.”
Ginnie Mae is expanding its guidelines to clarify the amount of risk it considers acceptable for an issuer’s Ginnie mortgage servicing rights portfolio and what could happen if the issuer violates those standards. The move is part of the agency’s continuous monitoring of issuer activity and MSR portfolios to ensure they are not putting issuers, investors or the program at risk.
The rising number of conventional purchase loans with debt-to-income ratios exceeding 45 percent combined with low credit scores has prompted two private mortgage insurers to take drastic action. Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and National MI have announced they will insure loans with DTIs exceeding 45 percent only when their credit score is 700 or greater. Mark Zimmerman, MGIC’s senior vice president for investor relations, said origination of such loans took off last summer when Fannie Mae eased guidelines on loans with 45 percent and above DTI. Fannie updated Desktop Underwriter by removing offsetting and compensating factors and started accepting the loans automatically instead of by referral. Freddie Mac does not accept such loans. Zimmerman said MGIC’s new guideline applies to loans with an agency automated underwriting system response. The company’s non-agency ...
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