Fed Chairman Janet Yellen on the future of Fannie and Freddie: “…I would hope that Congress would decide explicitly on what the government’s role is and if there are guarantees, that they would be recognized and priced appropriately.”
Sponsors can generally meet the requirements by retaining the most subordinate tranches of the securitization equaling at least 5.0 percent of the deal…
After the government stalled on a September ruling to turn over close to 60 documents regarding the GSEs’ net worth sweep, a judge rejected its appeal. The court ordered the government to disclose the bulk of the documents to the plaintiff’s attorneys in Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investors, upholding Judge Margaret Sweeney’s earlier decision. The government is to release all…
The Cato Institute is a conservative think tank and a quick read of Calabria’s blog makes it sound like he favors getting the government out of the MBS guaranty business...
One month does not a trend make, but early indicators hint that mortgage lenders may be stretching the credit box to boost volume. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $91.71 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in January, a stiff 18.3 percent drop from the previous month. Some of the decline was the result of Fannie’s heavy volume in December, when its business flow was catching up from an unusually slow November. But mortgage interest rates have edged up, and there is widespread expectation in the industry that refinance volume in 2017 will drop sharply from last year. Higher rates could also tarnish a housing market that’s bumping up against affordability and supply issues.
Treasury secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin still has GSE reform high on his list, according to one of President Trump’s top economic advisors. Meanwhile, speculation abounds as to whether there’s an administrative solution to GSE reform absent any legislative action. After some back and forth on the topic since the announcement of Mnuchin’s nomination his subsequent comments on the GSEs, economic advisor Gary Cohen said in national media outlets late last week that GSE reform is definitely a priority for Mnuchin. In fact, he said that it’s something Mnuchin’s spent a lot of time working on. “Once he gets approved and confirmed, Steve will be taking that on as one of this early priorities. So we definitely have some plans...
Fairholme Capital Management, in a new letter to clients, once again lays out its argument for investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock, but also takes a subtle, but polite, swipe at those opposed to a “recap-and-release” plan for the GSEs. “Only the disingenuous would assert that recapitalization of these companies would take decades and come at taxpayers’ expense, as if retaining earnings precluded the ability of each company to raise equity from private investors,” the mutual fund manager writes. Fairholme also notes that it owns GSE junior preferred shares – as opposed to common – because “…the provisions of the preferred stock contracts that...
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