In anticipating a green light for the proposal to restructure its credit-risk transfer offerings as real estate mortgage investment conduits, Fannie details additional considerations ahead of the change. The GSE said that there have been no significant concerns raised, so far, and expects to close the feedback period soon. To help expand the CRT investor base, several months ago both GSEs announced a proposal to restructure Fannie’s Connecticut Avenue Securities and Freddie’s Structured Agency Credit Risk programs. This would also help attract a different kind of investor base that includes real estate investment trusts and help boost liquidity. The REMIC structure will help...
An audit of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s privacy program led the FHFA Office of Inspector General to make recommendations to address several weaknesses. The program was designed so the FHFA can implement privacy and data protection procedures governing its collection, use, sharing, disclosure, transfer, storage and security of information in an identifiable form related to employees and the public. Kearney & Company performed the audit and found that the FHFA had not effectively met three out of nine privacy requirements and controls.The report made several recommendations to make sure the agency adequately identifies, monitors, and protects the complete inventory of its personally identifying information (PII) holdings and appropriately approves and documents privileged user access.
Trade groups continue to rally to prevent the Federal Housing Finance Agency from adding a language-preference question to loan applications. They said the suggestions, designed to assist borrowers with limited English proficiency, require more examination, but they don’t want it to delay implementation of the new Uniform Residential Loan Application.The FHFA extended the deadline for the comment period several times. It closed on Sept. 1. When the input period was extended in August, the FHFA updated the request for input with a presentation that describes the results of testing various language questions on the Uniform Residential...
GSE Conservatorship Hits Nine Year Mark. It’s been nine years since the government placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship on Sept. 6, 2008. No one knew it would last this long. Industry groups, along with some lawmakers, are working hard to put the wheels in motion to come up with a more sustainable solution for the mortgage giants. GSE shareholders group Investors Unite suggested, “If Fannie and Freddie could start retaining their profits and rebuild adequate reserves, the Trump administration could lock in reforms already in place and implement others, creating a federal role in housing finance that protects taxpayers.” GSE Hearing Postponed
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear poised to go ahead with their plans to structure future credit-risk transfer debt offerings as real estate mortgage investment conduits to expand the investor base. “No significant concerns have been raised to date, and, provided that the market continues to respond favorably, we expect to conclude our feedback period soon,” said Fannie. Back in May, the government-sponsored enterprises announced...
Partly to comply with liquidity cover ratio requirements imposed in the wake of the financial crisis, U.S. banks ramped up their holdings of high-quality liquid assets. But once they got compliant, many of them shifted their asset allocations more to agency MBS and U.S. Treasuries, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve. This could have implications for the U.S. central bank’s massive balance sheet over the long haul, they added. As of Jan. 1, 2015, large banks in the U.S. have needed...
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