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.

As the end of the year nears, there’s been talk this week about negotiations underway between the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Trump administration to address the capital situation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Although no one is confirming the discussion, a Bloomberg report quoted an anonymous source as saying that FHFA officials want Fannie and Freddie each to keep a capital buffer of $2 billion to $3 billion on their books. In return, the report said, the administration wants to limit the GSEs’ activity in the market by tightening restrictions on the type of loans they buy. In late 2013, former FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco proposed implementing a loan size limit on...

If Congress succeeds in cutting the corporate tax rate next year, the GSEs would have to write down their deferred tax assets by somewhere between $13 and $19 billion or face having to take a draw from the Treasury, according to estimates from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. The House Republican tax reform plan proposes to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. It would be the largest reduction in the corporate rate in the nation’s history. But KBW also said having to take a draw because of the DTA write-down may not be that big of a deal.

Ginnie Mae will soon announce a series of measures to resolve improper refinancing of VA loans that is causing rapid prepayments in the agency’s MBS, according to Michael Bright, Ginnie’s acting president.

As the calendar winds down on 2017, staffers for Sens. Robert Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, are busy working on housing-finance reform legislation, showing their progress, thus far, to a small group of industry insiders, Inside Mortgage Finance has learned.