Rep. Luetkemeyer stresses that housing finance reform is a “very difficult” issue…

Banks, thrifts and credit unions accounted for 50.5 percent of first-lien mortgage production by the top 100 lenders in the first quarter, according to survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance…

To date, the focus of housing-finance reform has been on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but they aren’t the only government-sponsored enterprises in the current system. The Federal Home Loan Banks wobbled through the crisis without needing a bailout and have been profitable ever since. There’s increasing chatter in Washington circles that the FHLBanks should be addressed in reform too. One key question is the matter of consolidation. There are 11 FHLBanks, each operating with its own management team, highly paid directors and staffs that could be combined. According to former Chicago FHLBank President Alex Pollock, “Discussions of merging the FHLBs are...

Maybe GSE 'recap and release' is DOA?

Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-ID, listed maintaining the TBA market and the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage among his important principles for reform…

Under NAR's plan, a portion of GSE profits would be deposited into a liquidity fund controlled by the FHFA.

-The nation’s top three ARM lenders are JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America…

Meanwhile, holders of the GSE junior preferred stock receive nothing from Fannie and Freddie in terms of dividends.

Just 18 percent of respondents said they do not want the GSEs preserved in their current state...

If the bill becomes law, REITs that gained access to low-cost FHLB advances would get a reprieve.