Affordable housing advocates are praising the leadership of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee for including a “robust dedicated source of revenue” for the National Housing Trust Fund in their bipartisan housing-finance reform legislation. A provision of the legislation filed by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, would expand both the base and the rate for the National Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund. Current law provides...

Mounting opposition from both the left and the right, a month-long wait to mark-up and newly filed competing legislation in the House could doom the already tenuous effort by two senior senators to move a GSE reform bill this year, say industry observers.Given the need for speed and a closing legislative window, last week’s announcement by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, that the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee would mark up their housing finance reform package on April 29 – well over a month after the bill’s initial March 16 rollout – is not seen as a good sign.

Whether by legislation or by regulation, a group of House Democrats want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to give unemployed homeowners a break by issuing a foreclosure moratorium. Last month, Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-PA, filed H.R. 4255, the Stop Foreclosures Due to Congressional Dysfunction Act, which would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency to establish a six-month moratorium on GSE-guaranteed mortgages held by homeowners who have lost their emergency unemployment compensation “due to congressional inaction.” The bill requires that borrowers must have been in good standing prior to losing their unemployment benefits in order to be eligible for the temporary forbearance.

Rep. Maxine Waters’ housing finance reform legislation may go nowhere in the House, but parts of it could be taken up by members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee who so far have not signed on with the bipartisan reform bill that’s to be marked up at the end of April. The California Democrat’s bill differs from the Senate bill in two key ways: it requires that the private market take a smaller first-loss position in a future government-insured program for mortgage-backed securities, and it sets up a lender-owned cooperative as the sole issuer of the new MBS. The bill pushed by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, would require...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual “performance goal” scorecard for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been issued to the two government-sponsored enterprises for comment and likely will be released by month’s end, according to industry officials briefed on the matter. But as for its contents going forward, that’s a different matter entirely. The 2013 version set forth...

House Republicans have found – or been given – yet another axe to grind against the CFPB: the confidentiality or downright secrecy associated with the bureau’s advisory council meetings. Currently, the CFPB has four such groups: the Community Bank Advisory Council, the Credit Union Advisory Council, the Academic Research Council and the Consumer Advisory Board. The groups are made up of industry representatives, consumer activists and academics.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, this week unveiled a mortgage-finance reform bill that would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a private cooperatively-owned entity that would issue a new form of conventional MBS backed by a mix of public and government credit support. The “Housing Opportunities Move the Economy Forward Act” adds a few new twists to the notion of creating an explicit government MBS guaranty that would stand behind a first-loss position funded by the private sector. Rather than allow a variety of private-sector firms to issue these securities, as the bipartisan Senate bill would, Waters’ proposal would create a single, cooperatively-owned entity that would be open to all lenders. The regulator of this new market, the National Mortgage Finance Administration, would have...

Bipartisan mortgage-reform legislation under consideration in the Senate could open significant opportunities for firms currently involved in the non-agency market, according to industry analysts. Firms with jumbo conduit operations and real estate investment trusts that invest in non-agency mortgage-backed securities could see their potential markets increase significantly under the proposed system. Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, have proposed a ...

The cost of borrowing for many homebuyers could rise as a consequence of the Senate’s newest housing finance reform legislation if it’s enacted as is, according to an analysis by Barclays. The bill, filed last week by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a new mortgage-backed securities program for conventional mortgages that requires private investors to take the first 10 percent of losses. The Barclays analysis found...

The mortgage securitization sector is pleased that the bipartisan agreement between Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, on housing-finance reform includes a small but critical provision to support the to-be-announced market. The 442-page draft sets a five-year timeline to shut down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and in their place create a new Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp., a utility that securitizes and guarantees mortgages. The government’s MBS guaranty would be supported by a 10 percent first-loss piece funded by private investors. The FMIC would approve...