Policymakers should replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with mandatory mortgage insurance and a catastrophic guaranty from the federal government, according to a new paper from Promontory Financial Group, a consulting firm. The paper was prepared at the request of Genworth Financial and Promontory said the mortgage insurance firm didn’t influence the recommendations. Under Promontory’s proposal to reform the government-sponsored enterprises, private entities would both issue and guarantee their own mortgage-backed securities, private MI would be required on a loan-level basis for mortgages securitized in the new system, and a government agency would provide a back-up guaranty on the MBS payable only upon default by the MBS issuer. “Our proposal is...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency withdrew a proposed rule it was forced to issue regarding Property Assessed Clean Energy programs after prevailing in court.
The Senate won't vote on the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, for director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, before leaving for its August recess.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a settlement this week with UBS Americas regarding non-agency mortgage-backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 2004 and 2007. It is the third settlement out of 18 similar lawsuits filed by the FHFA in 2011 and the first to include a disclosed dollar amount. The FHFA said UBS will pay a combined ... [Includes two briefs]
A former FHA commissioner said he supports a proposal in the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act (PATH Act) to spin off the FHA from the Department of Housing and Urban Development as an independent government-owned corporation. Brian Montgomery, who was assistant secretary for housing and head of the FHA during the Bush administration, said the separation, if enacted, would transfer authority, resources and personnel from HUD to the FHA to manage the insurance fund. “This is something I have advocated both during and after my more than four-year tenure as FHA commissioner,” said Montgomery, who ...
The FHA is trailing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the disposition of real estate-owned properties, according to a new study from the Government Accountability Office. The study found that FHA’s net proceeds from REO sales from January 2007 through June 2012 were about 4 to 6 percentage points lower than Fannie’s and Freddie’s returns. The differences in combined returns between FHA and the government-sponsored enterprises persisted at an estimated 2 to 5 percent even after controlling for differences in value, location, market conditions and other relevant factors. In addition, the FHA took about ...
RSS