The Federal Housing Finance Agency last week issued its final rule on the uniform MBS, the single security that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will package and sell. Its success, though, may depend on the much-contested definition of the rule: What are “covered programs, policies or practices”?

Industry participants see promise in credit-risk transfer transactions beyond the government-sponsored enterprises, with possible markets developing involving Ginnie Mae, banks, credit cards and auto loans.

The Structured Finance Industry Group plans to change its tactics with policymakers, said Michael Bright, the president and CEO of the trade group.

New production of agency single-family MBS fell for the sixth month in a row in Febru-ary, sinking to the lowest monthly output in nearly five years. [Includes two data charts.]

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS spiked northward in January, increasing 18.3% on a sequential basis, according to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Even though Mark Calabria backtracked on a decade of controversial comments about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at his confirmation hearing last week, his nomination to run the Federal Housing Finance Agency came out of the Senate Banking Committee with a 13 to 12, strictly party-line vote.

The industry is considering adopting block-chain technology in structured finance for its purported advantages, but S&P Global Ratings has expressed concerns that the nascent nature of the technology may introduce new risks to securitizations.

Comprehensive housing-finance reform probably isn’t in the cards anytime soon, but a plan to overhaul the GSEs is, according to industry participants. It remains unclear, though, what changes will be accomplished and whether Congress will pass legislation or if the reforms will be completed via the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Treasury Department.

In his semi-annual testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell finally put a number to his talk of “normalizing” the central bank’s balance sheet. He described a balance of $1 trillion as “a reasonable starting point, an estimate of where we might end up.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency late this week issued a final rule aimed at improving liquidity of the to-be-announced MBS as well as the new uniform MBS, which makes its debut in early June.