Industry officials who have studied the issue contend that the Treasury Department does not have the legal right to give Fannie and Freddie back to their junior and common shareholders. In short, it would take an act of Congress.
The status of housing finance reform legislation has become a topic of open speculation after the leadership of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee announced a last-minute postponement of a markup this week following the submission of some 100 amendments and the continued non-commitment of support by some committee Democrats. Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, announced to a packed committee chamber earlier this week that they would delay consideration of S. 1217 in order to “build a larger coalition of support” for their reform measure. “While we have the votes to report the bill out today, members of the committee have asked...
Although the Johnson-Crapo housing finance reform bill has little chance of becoming law this year, comments on the legislation submitted to the Treasury Department by the Federal Housing Finance Agency strongly suggest that the current regulator of the government-sponsored enterprises wants its reincarnation to have expanded oversight powers. Industry officials, lobbyists and executives tracking the bill note that if the FHFA has its way, the new Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. will become a supervisor of nonbanks that originate loans slated for securitization. Currently, the FHFA serves...
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their conservator/regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have provided significant comments and recommendations regarding the role of private mortgage insurers under a new housing-finance system. The GSEs and the FHFA submitted their views on private mortgage insurers as part of broader commentaries provided to the Treasury Department on the Senate bipartisan reform bill drafted by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID. The bill would wind down the two government-sponsored enterprises and replace them with a new securitization structure requiring that private capital absorb the first 10 percent of losses on a new breed of conventional mortgage-backed securities. To be eligible for the new MBS program, mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 80 percent would have...
A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of agency mortgage-backed securities data shows that mortgage production fell sharply in virtually all states during the first quarter. The top three states – California, Texas and Florida – fared somewhat better than the overall market. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized some $34.9 billion of California single-family mortgages during the first quarter of 2014, down 25.4 percent from the fourth quarter. But the overall agency MBS market fell 27.2 percent over that period. Texas, down 41.4 percent from the first quarter of 2013, and Florida (off 48.7 percent) both had...[Includes one data chart]
Under the original conservatorship agreement, the GSEs are allowed to maintain a small capital buffer, but within three years that buffer will be reduced to zero.
MBA believes the imposition of compensatory fees has morphed into a risk-sharing mechanism that shifts the costs of the prolonged foreclosure process from the GSEs onto mortgage servicers.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND, a co-sponsor of the Johnson-Crapo bill, also said the measure is moving forward. “This train is leaving the station,” she said. But whether it makes it to the floor of the Senate is another matter.
As far as pricing goes, if g-fees are raised Fannie and Freddie could earn more money – cash that ultimately would wind up at the Treasury Department, which sweeps most of their earnings each quarter.
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