The need to preserve liquidity and transparency in the existing to-be-announced market was an important component of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s newly-released plan for housing finance reform, according to Deutsche Bank Securities. Jeana Curro, research analyst with Deutsche, said a handful of provisions in the MBA’s latest proposal stand out as improvements from the industry group’s previous ideas on how to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. She agreed...

President Trump late last week signed an executive order laying out his “core principles” for regulating the U.S. financial system, and giving the head of the Treasury Department 120 days to detail how the current massive regulatory regime measures up. Trump’s core principles include fostering informed consumer choices, preventing bailouts, promoting economic growth, tailoring regulations and ensuring regulatory accountability. The broadly-worded order specifies, “Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect ... the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof.” The order was...

Late last week, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with arguments made by PHH Corp. and blocked three separate efforts to intervene in the dispute the lender has with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a simple, single-page order, the three judges "ordered that the motions be denied." The ruling affects...

Ben Carson, who is expected to be confirmed soon as the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said he’s looking for an experienced mortgage professional to guide the FHA program during his tenure. In recent years, the top FHA job has been held by people with more experience in government than in the mortgage business. The last industry veteran in the post was Dave Stevens, who brought years of mortgage finance experience when he took the job in the first Obama administration. He left in 2011 to become president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. In response to written questions from Senate Democrats, Carson said...

With Republicans looking to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act and pass new standards that will impact MBS and ABS, the Structured Finance Industry Group recently reviewed areas for reform along with how industry participants can push for changes. The review was completed by SFIG staff and Lewis Cohen, a partner at the law firm of Hogan Lovells. “It would be a mistake to assume that a simple repeal of Dodd-Frank would be sufficient to address many of the regulatory frictions that have impeded the use of securitization to provide funding and create growth in the real economy,” SFIG said. While MBS and ABS participants have long pushed for a loosening of the mandatory risk-retention requirements set by the DFA, SFIG said...

The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the Trump administration to help close a loophole in the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program that could put consumers at risk. In a recent public service video, Pete Mills, MBA senior vice president for residential policy and member engagement, said the MBA has been in contact with the president’s transition team to see if there is a way to incorporate consumer protections into the program. Mills noted a “significant void in consumer protection” due to the structure of PACE programs. The PACE program allows local or state governments, when authorized by state law, to finance the upfront cost of energy upgrades on commercial, residential or industrial properties. A PACE loan is repaid over a set period – typically 10 to 20 years – through a special assessment on the property on top of the owner’s annual property tax bills. It has seniority over all ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued guidance for servicing FHA-insured mortgages on properties encumbered with a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) obligation. The PACE guidance establishes servicing policies and procedures that went into effect on Jan. 19, 2017. It applies to all FHA Title II forward mortgages. A PACE loan is a way to finance clean-energy improvements in residential and commercial properties to reduce energy bills and facilitate water and energy conservation. The terms and conditions of a PACE loan may vary among state, local government and programs. Generally, a PACE loan is secured and collected in the same manner as a special tax assessment on the owner’s property. Payments are not made directly to the ...

Setting aside the 25-basis-point FHA premium reduction is a good idea because it would not have done much to expand access to credit anyway, according to researchers at the Urban Institute. In a recent analysis, Laurie Goodman, co-director of UI’s Housing Finance Policy Center, and research associate Bing Bai took a closer look at the FHA pricing adjustment and found that the impact on the market would have been small.The researchers concluded that retaining the current pricing for FHA-insured mortgages would help strengthen the FHA’s financial situation and allow the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund to build its buffer. As one of his final official acts as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro announced a 25-basis-point MIP reduction for most FHA single-family mortgages. The fee change was to take effect on Jan. 27, 2017. Just hours after ...

A day after Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee delayed a vote on some of President Trump’s nominations by refusing to attend a confirmation hearing, Republicans used a parliamentary maneuver to push through a unanimous favorable vote on two of them. Mortgage industry observers were expecting positive votes this week from the committee on the nominations of Steve Mnuchin as the new head of the U.S. Treasury and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-AL, as the next U.S. Attorney General. However, Democrat members of the committee refused...

The Mortgage Bankers Association this week released an updated proposal to establish multiple privately owned guarantors to promote competition in the marketplace. In the MBA’s blueprint, the guarantors would be organized as privately-owned utilities with a regulated rate of return. “The more market participants that compete...