Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, is none too thrilled with plans by the Treasury Department and Comptroller of the Currency to open up federal banking charters to fintech firms.
The mortgage industry this week was busy trying to handicap what immediate changes might be forced upon the secondary market in the event Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt leaves the agency before his term ends in January. An early departure became more likely in the wake of sexual harassment allegations levied against Watt by an agency employee. The allegations surfaced last Friday in a report by Politico. Watt is widely viewed as an effective regulator whose ...
Depository institutions still have responsibility for most agency mortgage servicing, but nonbanks continued to gain share during the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of agency mortgage-backed securities data. As of the end of June, nonbanks serviced $2.887 trillion of single-family loans in MBS pools is-sued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. That was up 2.8 percent from March and represented ... [Includes two data charts]
Although Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, has vowed to introduce Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reform legislation sometime this fall, industry stakeholders have shifted their focus to working with the executive branch on the issue. Trade groups have given up on the idea of Congress coming up with a workable solution, believing that change will occur administratively with the Treasury Department working in tandem with the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This belief covers not only ...