In his first report to Congress as director, Mark Calabria describes how new accounting standards, credit-risk transfers and high interest rates cut into profits at the GSEs.
It's common knowledge in the industry that the Treasury Department is working on a recap-and-release plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To pull off such a massive undertaking the government will need an investment banker. But who?
The bureau's latest regulatory agenda includes plans to address the fate of the qualified mortgage "patch," but drops items regarding the use of disparate-impact theory in fair lending laws.
In a speech this week before the annual secondary market conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association, FHFA Director Mark Calabria sounded a little bit like the Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute.
New FHFA Director Mark Calabria singled out GSE "charter creep" as something he would like to eliminate. But he was short on specifics. Still, an FHFA probe of the matter has been launched.
The National Association of Realtors this week picked apart FHFA's plan to recapitalize the GSEs and release them from conservatorship. NAR, by the way, favors a model where the GSEs are morphed into shareholder-owned utilities.
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