It’s only a matter of time before the Treasury Department unveils its GSE re-form blueprint to White House insiders. But which advisory firm will assist Treasury in selling a new class of Fannie/Freddie stock to the public?
The uniform MBS is scheduled to launch in just over three months, but there is still some confusion about how it will affect investors in the to-be-announced market. Earlier this month, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Investment Company Institute, in a joint letter, urged the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department to clarify certain diversification requirements under the single security initiative.
This week, Ginnie Mae issued an all-participants memo dictating new standards for firms seeking to become issuers, including the stipulation that applicants submit to a corporate credit evaluation. Ginnie said the financial exercise will be “similar to those employed by credit rating agencies.” The evaluation will determine whether an applicant is qualified to be an issuer or whether additional criteria should be imposed even if the basic standards are met. Applicants that rely on a subservicer arrangement will be scrutinized even more. The bulletin also notes that, effective immediately, the agency is implementing new notification requirements for MBS issuers engaged in “certain subservicer advance or servicing income agreements, which do not require prior Ginnie Mae approval, but can impact an issuer’s ongoing liquidity position and financial obligations.” While Ginnie currently permits subservicers to advance ...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual report on housing showed that Freddie Mac fell short of meeting two of its four single-family affordable housing goals for 2017. The GSE came close but didn’t meet the low-income and very low-income purchase goals. The low-income goal was 24.0 percent and Freddie came in at 23.2 percent. The very low-income purchase target was 6.0 percent and Freddie was at 5.7 percent. The FHFA recently notified Freddie of the shortage ...
Certain potential changes could materially affect origination volume and determine the government-sponsored enterprises’ direction going forward, according to analysts. One of those changes could have a significant impact on the FHA market. Wells Fargo Securities analysts recently looked at three potential developments in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac sphere and evaluated their effects on the broader mortgage market. Two of those potential changes – loan limits and guarantee fees – are controlled directly by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, while the third relates to the temporary GSE qualified-mortgage exemption, or “QM patch,” which could affect the FHA market. All three factors loom over the mortgage landscape as the FHFA expects a new director in January 2019, who is likely to be more right leaning and could shift the focus back to shrinking the ...
Participants in Ginnie Mae’s single-family mortgage-backed securities program may expect new policy changes, including servicer and credit ratings for the largest issuers, clarification of “appropriate sources of liquidity” and other financial requirements. The changes come as issuer liquidity continues to be a primary concern for Ginnie Mae, particularly with nonbanks now the dominant segment in the single-family MBS program. “We’re working on those policies right now,” said Leslie Meaux Pordzik, Ginnie’s acting senior vice president, Office of Issuer and Portfolio Management, at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in Washington, DC, this week. Nonbanks account for nearly two-thirds of Ginnie MBS issuance and approximately 75 percent of FHA and VA lending. Nonbanks serviced a record 61.1 percent of outstanding Ginnie single-family MBS at the end of the ...
A top CFPB official last week touted the agency’s strategy on fintech and innovation in financial services as a perfect fit with its emphasis on cooperating with state regulators. Paul Watkins, director of the CFPB’s Office of Innovation, said the bureau is taking unique steps to coordinate with state regulators in creating regulatory sandboxes for financial technology companies. He joined other government officials in making remarks at the Bank Policy Institute’s ...
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