As a number of shareholder lawsuits against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hang in the balance, a new administration offers reasons for some to be optimistic on the cases coming to a close and the Treasury’s sweep of the government-sponsored enterprises’ profits coming to an end. During a Jan. 18 call hosted by Investors Unite, legal experts weighed in on the outlook for GSE shareholder cases just days before the inauguration. Plaintiffs have been arguing that a government bailout of the GSEs and the subsequent Treasury sweep was unnecessary and illegal. “As GSE shareholders, we are...
As one former GSE stock analyst told us: “There’s no way they can be privatized. To maintain an AAA rating they would need 25 percent (I’m guessing) capital to assets. Even at 5 percent there is not enough spread to earn a market return on capital.”
The 25-basis-point decrease in the FHA’s annual insurance premiums translates not only to annual savings for homeowners but also boosts the competitiveness of housing finance agency loan products, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service. The report regards the latest FHA pricing adjustment as credit positive for housing finance agencies (HFAs) because it would make FHA loans more affordable to borrowers and increase HFA loan originations. The announcement to reduce the annual mortgage insurance premium to its lowest allowable level took stakeholders by surprise. In November, FHA had no plans to lower premiums despite an uplifting actuarial report on the condition of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. This week, however, there is uncertainty as to whether the Trump administration will allow the reduced premiums to take effect for new loans closing on or after ...
A former FHA commissioner is calling for a common national housing policy and regulations, as well as aligned capital standards for FHA and the government-sponsored enterprises in lieu of the current regulatory regime – an idea first put forth by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Brian Montgomery, former assistant secretary for housing and FHA commissioner in the second Bush administration, said the nation’s homebuyers are at a disadvantage due to the lack of a unified, detailed plan for the housing finance system. Montgomery, a current contender for a top executive position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, urged President Trump to create a new Office of National Housing Policy to develop a “unified and collaborative approach to our nation’s housing policy, including homeownership and subsidized rental housing.” “The prevailing view within the ...
Antonio Weiss, counselor to the secretary of the Treasury Department, cautioned that any reduction to the corporate tax rate could prompt a draw from Treasury funds by the GSEs.
The evolution of the agency mortgage-servicing market isn’t over, though it appears to have settled into a long-term transition by attrition. At the end of 2016, depository institutions serviced some $3.584 trillion of single-family home loans committed to mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. That was down 1.0 percent from September, a period during which the supply of agency MBS debt outstanding was growing. The depository share of agency MBS servicing fell...[Includes two data tables]
Legislative reform of the government-sponsored enterprises doesn’t appear to be a high priority for Republican lawmakers, but President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to reduce the corporate tax rate could inadvertently prompt some GSE reform activity, according to industry analysts. As of the end of the third quarter of 2016, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had a combined $53.80 billion in deferred tax assets. The DTAs result from differences between the carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities under generally accepted accounting principles and their respective tax bases. The DTAs are...
Thanks to stellar fourth quarter MBS issuance – coupled with higher interest rates at Dec. 31 – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are likely to report their best quarterly earnings of 2016, money that will go directly into the U.S. Treasury. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance this week, the general consensus among observers is that the two government-sponsored enterprises will post a combined profit north of $5.5 billion. In 2016, the two guaranteed...
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