It appears that Congressional reform of the housing-finance system – and final resolution of Fan-nie Mae and Freddie Mac – is back on track with a key piece of good news for MBS investors: an ex-plicit federal guarantee on conventional product looks likely.

Panelists during a House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance hearing this week disagreed on the type of credit-risk sharing transfers that future MBS guarantors should use in a reformed housing-finance system.

Regulatory reform legislation with limited bipartisan support is making its way through the Senate, and a change in leadership at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could provide further relief for the industry. This week, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs approved a regulatory reform bill on a 16-7 vote. S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, would make adjustments to the standards for qualified mortgages ...

Housing-finance reform legislation in Congress will likely include a government guarantee for mortgage securities backed by conventional home loans after a concession this week by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee has long pushed to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, removing the government guarantee associated with the government-sponsored enterprises. “I continue to believe that a government guarantee in ...

Tax reform legislation on track for enactment by the end of the year could have an outsized impact on the jumbo market, according to industry analysts. The House and Senate are currently working to reconcile differences between their versions of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. A concern for jumbo lenders is that both versions of the bill would set a $10,000 limit for deductions relating to state/local property taxes and eliminate deductions for state/local income taxes. The House bill ...

Despite industry worries that the struggle over the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protec-tion Bureau might derail congressional efforts to enact regulatory relief legislation, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee did just that this week, with 16 ayes prevailing over seven nays.

An intensive burst of lobbying helped mortgage servicers avoid adverse consequences in the tax reform bill passed by the Senate late last week. But housing-industry representatives continue to warn that the legislation would lead to home-price reductions and reduce incentives for homeownership.

Overshadowed by all the drama associated with the resignation of CFPB Director Richard Cordray and the struggle over who is to serve as his temporary replacement was some potentially significant legislative activity on Capitol Hill. A number of bills were recently introduced or are in the process of facing votes that could affect the CFPB, some of its rulemakings and the regulations it enforces. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-WY, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, late last week introduced bicameral legislation to restrain the CFPB’s rates of pay. Specifically, the legislation, H.R.4499, the CFPB Pay Fairness Act, would require the director of the bureau to ...

Republican Senators Threaten to Undo any CFPB Rules Issued Under an English Regime. Last week, nine senators said they would work to invalidate any new rules promulgated by the bureau if Leandra English prevails in her attempts to unseat and replace the bureau’s acting director, Mick Mulvaney.... Mulvaney Taps Hensarling Aide. Is the Congressman Next? CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has named House Financial Services Committee Senior Counsel Brian Johnson to serve him as a senior adviser, late-breaking press reports indicated. ...

In roughly 30 days, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will see their capital buffers fall to zero, an event that has GOP legislators working feverishly over the past several weeks to come up with housing-finance reform legislation. In short, Republicans fear that in the event of a quarterly loss by one or both GSEs next year, these massive mortgage giants might need to tap a line of credit they have with the U.S. Treasury, which would result in another “taxpayer bailout” of the two. And since Republicans are in charge of both chambers of Congress, as well as the White House, they would get blamed. At least that’s how the situation was explained to Inside The GSEs.