With the first quarter of the year nearly over, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has yet to indicate when, or even whether, it will issue its 2014 Conservatorship Scorecard. The agency debuted its scorecard in early March 2012 under then FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco as a means to implement in fuller detail the Finance Agency’s “strategic plan” for a post-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac secondary market.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks will now be required to report directly any suspected fraud to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network under the terms of a final rule. Published in the Feb. 25 Federal Register, the final rule adopts “without significant change” FinCEN’s November 2011 proposal to require the GSEs to file suspicious activity reports directly with FinCEN rather than through their own regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Industry observers expect the new regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will ease up on plans to shrink the GSEs’ footprint but so far the recently installed Federal Housing Finance Agency head isn’t saying much. Since Mel Watt was sworn into a five-year term as FHFA director on Jan. 6, the former North Carolina Democrat congressman has made no official public appearances or policy statements, except for canned comments attributed to him in routine Finance Agency announcements.

It appears that the Federal Housing Finance Agency has slowed its search for a chief executive and chairman to manage the fledgling common securitization platform, which is slated to be headquartered in Bethesda, MD. One former candidate for the CEO position told Inside The GSEs: “It’s pretty much turned into the mess I suspected it would a year ago.” Discussing the chairman position, he added: “They still haven’t come to terms on compensation for the person they want.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, as part of its new “servicing project,” is once again reviewing minimum fees paid to servicers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, according to industry advisors briefed on the matter. Among other things, the servicing project is reviewing how large-scale packages of GSE receivables are sold and transferred. This was not entirely unexpected, given the massive sales of mortgage servicing rights the past 18 months. But mortgage bankers thought changing the minimum servicing fee of 25 basis points was a dead issue.

VA Lenders’ Compliance with CFPB’s Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage Rules. Until the Department of Veterans Affairs’ rule on ATR/QM is in place, all VA lenders must comply with the requirements of the Truth in Lending Act, as established by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ATR/QM rule, according to a recent agency guideline. VA will continue to guarantee all loans made in compliance with existing VA requirements, regardless of their QM status, the agency clarified. It urged lenders to refer to the CFPB guidance to ensure all their VA loans are ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are poised to see enhanced competition in the multifamily mortgage-backed securities market in 2014, but it remains to be seen whether the GSEs’ regulator will follow through on proposed restraints on their multifamily footprint. The two GSEs await fresh direction from the FHFA in terms of any possible further constriction of their multifamily activity, after they were directed in 2013 to reduce their multifamily loan purchases by 10 percent from the previous year.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt ended his first week on his new job by announcing four special advisors “to provide counsel on policy and strategic decisions” at the FHFA. Megan Moore will join the Finance Agency as Special Advisor – Intergovernmental.

Expect the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General and its investigators to continue to seek out an “increasingly active role” alongside federal and state prosecutors in the pursuit of financial fraud cases – whether or not there is a GSE connection, according to an industry attorney. Industry lawyer and one-time federal prosecutor Andrew Schilling of BuckleySandler noted in a recent opinion piece what the FHFA’s official watchdog itself recently boasted – that the OIG seeks to expand its investigative presence in 2014.