A heavily redacted Federal Housing Finance Agency Inspector General management alert about credit scores, published in late July, involved Fannie Mae CEO Timothy Mayopoulos, sources confirm.The 15-page report only mentioned that a “senior executive” was involved in a conflict-of-interest administrative review pertaining to alternative credit scores. It said that the executive did not disclose “critical information” about potential conflicts of interest arising from a personal relationship. Based on the IG report, it seems that Mayopoulos did disclose and recuse himself from business decisions related to alternative credit scores. But the IG report appears to take issue with the fact that he did not “fully disclose” the information.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be on track for a June 2019 launch of the new uniform MBS, but the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has yet to issue a formal declaration on to-be-announced eligibility for UMBS.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued a combined $65.85 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities last month, a 1.0 percent decline from their June total, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis of MBS data. Compared to the first seven months of 2017, the GSE single-family business was down 7.4 percent as of the end of July. Most of the month-to-month slump was at Freddie, where MBS production fell 8.9 percent from June. Fannie managed a 5.0 percent increase in July. Both GSEs are off about the same on a year-to-date basis. [Includes two data charts.]
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt has been under a lot of scrutiny as his tenure winds down by yearend. Some observers claim the FHFA is allowing the GSEs to introduce pilot programs that conflict with the primary market. There is a sexual harassment allegation against Watt. And he is reportedly being investigated for intimidating the agency’s inspector general....
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