Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, late this week finally unveiled his long-awaited housing-finance reform proposal, calling for a repeal of the federal charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The 10-year anniversary of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac entering conservatorship prompted an effusion of words regarding housing-finance reform and a draft of a new bipartisan bill in the House. It remains to be seen whether any of the talk turns into action in Congress, though administrative reform via the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Treasury Department remains a possibility. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee ...

Almost 30 housing and mortgage-related organizations midweek issued an open letter to the White House and Congress, asking that policymakers make permanent several changes to operations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, fearing that the “stability” of the U.S. housing market is “illusory.”

Self-employed borrowers that can’t qualify for non-agency qualified mortgages could see relief from a bill introduced in the Senate last week.

New housing finance structures created to increase private capital would leave borrowers with slightly higher interest rates but greatly reduce federal costs, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. The report examined several structures, ranging from a fully federal guarantee on mortgage-backed securities to a largely private market. On a “fair value” basis, it will cost the federal government $19 billion over the next 10 years to backstop an estimated $12 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities. The CBO notes the cost “represents the estimated amount that the government would have to pay private guarantors to bear the credit risk of the new guarantees.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should focus on things like cash flow projections, diversified funding and identifying potentially adverse events to manage their liquidity risk, according to a new advisory bulletin issued late this month by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The Internal Revenue Service published a proposed rule this month to help determine who’s eligible for a new 20.0 percent tax deduction for pass-through entities. Lenders that retain their production in portfolio look to be eligible for the deduction but there’s uncertainty about businesses that originate and sell loans.

CFPB Announces HMDA File Format Verification Tool and New 2017 Dataset. The CFPB earlier this month released the 2018 File Format Verification Tool (FFVT) which tests whether HMDA reporters’ files meet certain formatting requirements needed to submit data to the HMDA platform. Specifically, the FFVT will test whether the file is pipe-delimited, has the proper number of data fields, and has data fields formatting as integers, where necessary ... [Includes three briefs]

The Mortgage Bankers Association called upon Congress to pass legislation to restore Ginnie Mae eligibility for so-called orphaned VA loans, which have caused a temporary disruption in the government-backed secondary market. In written testimony to the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs last week, the MBA urged lawmakers to make technical corrections to restore the eligibility of certain Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans for pooling. The MBA estimated the VA orphan loan mess at roughly $500 million. Due to new loan seasoning requirements in the recently enacted Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, sime IRRRLs were rendered ineligible for Ginnie MBS pools. The loans were in transit when legislation addressing the problem of VA loan churning and serial refinancing became law in May. The new law’s seasoning provisions turned out to be ...

A Treasury Department report called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to establish clear standards for determining which mortgage-related violations and loan defects the Department of Justice should pursue under the False Claims Act. The report also recommended that DOJ ensure that materiality, for purposes of the FCA, is linked to the standards of the agency administering the program to which the claim has been filed. Furthermore, it urged both HUD and the DOJ to work together to clarify the process by which they can jointly resolve claims. The report was issued pursuant to President Trump’s February 2017 executive order establishing his administration’s policy to regulate the U.S. financial system according to a set of core principles. Both HUD and the DOJ have been successful in using the statute to prosecute FHA lenders who knowingly commit fraud or make ...