The White House isn’t quite ready to pack it in on housing finance reform legislation this year, at least in the Senate, even as policymakers look ahead to take up the issue anew next year, say industry observers. The industry at large has all but written off the prospects of advancing a GSE reform bill in the 113th Congress following the bare minimum passage out of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee of S. 1217 by the committee’s chairman and ranking member Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID.

Reform legislation rolled out earlier this month by House Democrats that would phase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of business while dramatically expanding Ginnie Mae’s role in the market has been positively received within the industry, but room for improvement remains. The Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, sponsored by House Democrats John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT), has zero chance of gaining traction this year. However, the lawmakers said they are playing the long game with their bill, looking ahead to the GSE reform debate in the 114th Congress.

If JPMorgan Chase were to exit the FHA program, plenty of other residential lenders would pick up the slack, according to officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, who in a press briefing this week indicated the agency is hardly worried about such a development. “There are plenty of other lenders,” said one senior HUD official. “Their [JPM’s] volume has dropped. Quicken is now number one.” During an earnings call last week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon questioned...

A significantly bigger Ginnie Mae would be placed in charge of all MBS issued with a government backing while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be wound down and stripped of their government sponsorship under a bill filed last week by House Democrats. The legislation – the Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, sponsored by House Democrats John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT) – has zero chance of gaining traction this year. It would create a new Ginnie Mae MBS backed by conventional mortgages that would have the full faith and credit of the federal government while tapping private capital to absorb some of the risk. The new structure under the Delaney-Carney-Himes bill would create...

Ginnie Mae would play a greater role in a private-market partnership model envisioned in proposed housing finance reform legislation introduced recently by House Democrats. However, many in the industry doubt whether a Democrat-sponsored reform bill will pass in this Congress. Sponsored by Reps. John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT), the Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act would put Ginnie Mae in charge of all single- and multifamily mortgage-backed securities with government backing. Among other things, H.R. 5055 would create a new Ginnie Mae MBS for conventional mortgages backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government with minimum support from the private sector. Under the proposed model, private entities would assume up to 5 percent of the first-loss capital on the MBS. The remaining 95 percent would be shared between ...

A new “middle ground” legislative proposal that would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a beefed-up Ginnie Mae is getting high marks from industry observers, but lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill have no more appetite for housing finance reform this year. The Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, sponsored by House Democrats John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE) and Jim Himes (CT), would create a new Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed security for conventional mortgages. It would have the full faith and credit of the federal government while tapping private sector capital to absorb some of the risk. H.R. 5055 has...

A GSE reform bill filed late this week by a trio of House Democrats is less a last ditch effort to push their measure across the finish line this year than a bid to have the first word in next year’s debate over housing finance reform, note industry observers. The Partnership to Strengthen Homeownership Act, H.R. 5055, by Reps. John Delaney (MD), John Carney (DE), and Jim Himes (CT), follows through on their January draft proposal to seek a “middle ground” between the existing, politically untenable legislative proposals.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency remains committed under new management to deploy regulatory countermeasures against municipalities that move forward with proposed efforts to seize underwater mortgages via local eminent domain powers, agency officials say. After a quiet period when it appeared this issue was going away, eminent domain initiatives are cropping up again, including a recent push by a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to get the city to partner with Richmond, CA.

Bankers Keep up the Push for CFPB-Related Legislation. The American Bankers Association is making a member push to drum up on Capitol Hill for three pieces of legislation designed to ease the regulatory burden for bankers, H.R. 2673, H.R. 4521 and H.R. 4466. H.R. 2673, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, would treat as a qualified mortgage any residential mortgage loan made by a creditor so long as it is held in portfolio. H.R. 4521, the Community Institution Mortgage Relief Act of 2014, would expand the CFPB’s small servicers exception to include servicers of 20,000 mortgage loans or less, and would revise the small creditor exemption to include loans that are held by creditors with assets of $10 billion ...

Look for the Republican-controlled House this month to push additional “tax extender” legislation, including a measure to make permanent a tax break for private mortgage insurance, although the Senate will likely defer any action on tax bills stalled until after the November elections. More than six months after a series of tax incentives, including some mortgage-related measures, expired due to Congressional inaction, partisan sniping and a distinct difference in the legislative approaches of House and Senate tax-writing chairmen has contributed to uncertainty within the industry. House, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-MI, has taken...