Industry experts continue to weigh in on the White House’s proposal to privatize the GSEs and introduce multiple guarantors, but don’t anticipate action anytime soon. Analysts with Keefe, Bruyette and Woods said the proposed changes are similar to the Corker-Warner and Johnson-Crapo reform bills previously introduced in the Senate.

Routine financial transactions involving mortgages could face extreme headwinds under a new consumer data privacy bill passed last week in California. So much so that it prompted the Federal Housing Finance Agency to urge state lawmakers to consider the implications of the legislation to the mortgage market. The controversial consumer data privacy bill passed on June 28. It would allow consumers to opt-out of any type of data collection and give consumers the right to have any personal information deleted.

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson reiterated concerns raised previously by his deputies regarding certain lending trends that could potentially endanger FHA’s financial health. Testifying during a HUD oversight hearing in the House Financial Services Committee this week, Carson said the department is scrutinizing certain policies that may be causing or contributing to the growth of cash-out transactions, unusually high debt-to-income ratios, serious loan delinquencies and early payment defaults. Carson said maintaining the health of the FHA mortgage insurance fund is critical in maintaining the agency as a source of credit for first time, low- and moderate-income, and minority homebuyers. The share of cash-out among all of FHA’s refinance transactions has increased to 60 percent as of April 2018 from 45 percent a year ago, he said. Also during that ...

The mortgage banking industry is backing a legislative proposal that would limit the government’s use of the False Claims Act to pursue hefty damages against FHA lenders. In a recent letter to the bill’s co-sponsors, the Mortgage Bankers Association expressed its strong support for H.R. 5993, the Fixing Housing Access Act of 2018. The MBA noted that originating FHA-insured loans has become very risky in recent years largely due to the civil actions brought by the Department of Justice under the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989. Fifty-four FCA and FIRREA cases against financial institutions have settled for billions of dollars between July 2011 and January 2018, according to data compiled by the Buckley Sandler law firm. Four cases are pending and one civil penalty award was reversed on appeal. Those lenders who were on the ...

The White House’s broadly phrased proposal to make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac private corporations again and make explicit the government’s guarantee of their mortgage-backed securities caught industry observers by surprise.

Just as optimistic talk of GSE reform was fading, in a surprise move late this week the Trump administration revealed a proposal to end the 10-year conservatorship. The gist of it is to reduce the GSEs’ footprint in the housing market through more competition and provide an explicit U.S. guarantee on conventional mortgage-backed securities that is separate from the federal support for low- and moderate-income borrowers.The three-page proposal, billed as a reorganization plan, is part of a larger “Delivering Government Solutions for the 21st Century” publication revealed on June 21. “This proposal would reorganize the way the federal government delivers mortgage assistance and go beyond...

The Treasury Department wants to reduce the GSEs’ footprint in the mortgage market, according to Treasury Counselor Craig Phillips. He also reiterated, about a week before the administration formally published its thoughts on reform (see story page 3), that ultimately the goal is to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship. He said that at 70 percent the federal share of housing is clearly far too high. The Treasury official spoke at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch mortgage and housing finance conference in New York last week that was closed to the press. BAML provided a report on his remarks.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s proposed new risk-based capital requirements for the GSEs released last week has some industry participants asking the regulator to take it a step further. Although the $180.9 billion combined capital requirement won’t go into effect now and is merely an example of what would be if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not in conservatorship, the FHFA is seeking comment on the proposal. Capital requirements for the duo have been suspended since the 2008 conservatorship, but FHFA Director Mel Watt said it’s important for the regulator “to articulate our views on capital requirements and to start a healthy discussion about the amount of capital the enterprises should have to appropriately shield taxpayers from assistance.”

Fitch Accepts GSE Valuation Tools in New RMBS Criteria. Fitch Ratings updated its residential mortgage-backed securities criteria to allow Fannie Mae’s Collateral Underwriter and Freddie Mac’s Loan Collateral Advisor to be used as third-party support of original appraisal in U.S. RMBS transactions. This allows for use of CU or LCA in support of appraisals for conforming and non-conforming loans that are less than two years old and are secured by one-unit single-family properties. FHFA’s Fifth NPL Sales Report. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sold 90,921 nonperforming loans with a total unpaid principal balance of $17.4 billion through Dec. 31, 2017, according to the most recent NPL sales report. NPLs sold had average...

The Trump administration late this week published its thoughts on ending the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, aiming to reduce their role in the housing-finance market – while providing an explicit U.S. guarantee on conventional MBS.