Will He? Won’t He? Run for Governor of Ohio, That Is. The top consumer regulator in the land, Richard Cordray, head of the CFPB, has until 4 p.m. Feb. 7, 2018, to file the necessary paperwork to run in the Ohio gubernatorial primary in May of next year. Current Republican Gov. John Kasich is term-limited and will have to vacate the governor’s mansion at the end of 2018.... CFPB Fines JPMorgan Chase $4.6 Million for Alleged Failures Related to Checking Account Screening Information. The CFPB recently brought an enforcement action against JPMorgan Chase Bank, alleging that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not having adequate policies in place regarding the accuracy of information it provided to nationwide specialty consumer reporting companies about individuals’ checking account behavior....

In the event of a severe global recession, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could need a bailout of up to $99.6 billion, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual stress test report released this week. The test of severely-adverse scenarios, required by the Dodd-Frank Act for companies with consolidated assets of more than $10 billion, is based on Fannie and Freddie portfolios as of Dec. 31, 2016. The bailout would be needed on an incremental basis and would also depend on the treatment of the GSEs’ tax-deferred assets. Under this hypothetical economic scenario, elevated stress in corporate financial and commercial real estate markets include situations where...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earnings remained strong in the second quarter with the GSEs posting a combined $4.86 billion in net income, but concerns about the soon to be non-existent capital buffer also remain. The GSEs’ $9.85 billion in net income for the first half of the year more than doubled their combined earnings from the same time period in 2016, according to their second quarter earnings statements released last week. While Fannie posted a net income of $3.20 billion, a 15.4 percent quarterly improvement, Freddie witnessed a 24.7 percent decline to $1.66 billion in the second quarter.

Although Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt is concerned about the GSE capital buffer falling to zero early next year, it appears he’s unlikely to take administrative action anytime soon to fix the situation. At least that’s the message conveyed in a new letter Watt penned to National Association of Realtors President William Brown. According to the Aug. 9 letter, Watt notes he’s “very concerned” about the issue because it “increases the probability of a draw which could cause an adverse market reaction.” The regulator adds: “However, I am sensitive to the prospect that whatever steps FHFA could take might be misperceived as either an effort...

  PHH Corp. announced a $75 million settlement with the Department of Justice and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to settle unspecified allegations tied to the underwriting of legacy loans. However, whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans can be targeted for False Claims Act purposes is still debatable. The DOJ portion of the settlement covers FHA and VA mortgages originated from January 2006 until the end of 2011. …

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said both old and new obstacles have negatively affected African-American homeownership, which has steadily retrogressed. Before the housing crisis, the homeownership rate for African-Americans was close to 50 percent in 2004. However, by 2017 it declined closer to levels last seen in 1994. “We are worse off today than we were 20 years ago,” said Watt, while speaking at the National Association of Real Estate Brokers’ annual convention in New Orleans last week. He pointed out that because home equity has played a major role in African-American assets, the impact of the economic downturn and foreclosure crisis on wealth in

The Federal Home Loan Bank System saw a 7 percent increase in advances during the second quarter of 2017. The FHLBank’s Office of Finance reported that advances stood at 706.8 billion, at the end of June, up from $660.7 billion reported in the previous quarter. The combined net income for the second quarter was $844 million, up from $812 million the previous quarter. The OF attributes the upswing to an increase in net interest income, partially offset by lower gains on litigation settlements. For the first half of the year net income was $1.66 billion representing a 2.2 percent increase from a year...

To minimize confusion with the implementation of the single security, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said it doesn’t plan to introduce new credit- scoring models until at least 2019. A number of groups have been pushing the government-sponsored enterprises to look beyond the FICO score, and Fannie and Freddie have been studying the issue. But FHFA Director Mel Watt said any major change would have to wait until the GSEs have completed the complex single-security project. “Based on the overwhelming feedback we have received from the industry, it is clear that it would be a serious mistake to change credit scoring models before mid-2019,” he told the annual convention of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers last week.

Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton said the GSE is exploring the single-family rental market, in consultation with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and touted the affordability aspect of the plan. “We believe it’s appropriate to enter that market with care and where there are additional social benefits, and significant affordable characteristics. So it’ll be on a smaller scale,” he told Inside The GSEs. “We have permission to go for a limited amount of volume to learn about the business.”This is in contrast to Fannie Mae’s entry into the single-family market. Earlier this year Fannie did a $1 billion deal with Invitation Homes as a pilot program.

The Mortgage Bankers Association released a paper focused on how the various aspects of its reform proposal could impact consumer costs and concluded any impact would be minimal.The trade group explained that costs under the MBA proposal, which calls for multiple privately owned guarantors, are likely to be similar to costs in today’s mortgage market. “While the precise impact on consumer costs from true housing-finance reform may be difficult to gauge, we know that attempts to shortcut reform through recap and release would lead to much higher costs for consumers,” said the MBA, adding that global investors have been clear that they don’t want to return to a world of implicit guarantees.