Over the past four years, the number of insurance companies joining Federal Home Loan Banks has grown by an average of about 10 percent as several insurance groups have substantially increased their borrowing capacity within the FHLBank system, and there is more where that came from, according to a report by Fitch Ratings. Among the 17 top insurance company FHLBank borrowers at year-end 2012, Fitch noted that only one was not a life insurance company. "Life insurance companies dominate insurance company FHLB advance usage, mostly due to the presence of housing-related assets in their investment portfolios,” said Fitch. “Life insurers are usually more likely than other insurers to invest in this sector due to their need for long-duration investment assets to match against the long-duration and cash flow characteristics of their insurance liabilities.”

Republican and Democrat lawmakers in the Senate formally unveiled their ambitious plan to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a new federal entity providing backstop guaranties for securities backed by high-quality conventional mortgages. Although they made a variety of changes to a “discussion draft” version of the legislation that has been widely circulated in recent weeks, the proposal still faces a huge hurdle in the House despite winning generally favorable reactions from industry groups. As it was introduced this week, S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013, would create...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would cease to exist while the Federal Housing Finance Agency would be repurposed into a new incarnation as a “capable and empowered” regulator of a “pragmatic” housing finance system as envisioned in a new blueprint released this week by four industry experts. Spearheaded by Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi – most recently on the White House’s short list to head the FHFA – the group’s white paper calls for the federal government to play an “explicit and transparent” role in the new housing finance system and to act as an insurer that covers catastrophic losses. The blueprint calls for an emphasis on mortgage funding diversity.

Compensation for directors at each of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks increased in 2012, continuing a trend begun in 2011 when a director’s earnings “started to show a wide range across the FHLBanks for similar positions,” according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA’s fifth annual report to Congress noted that during 2012, the total fees paid to all FHLBank directors were $12.1 million, ranging from $679,817 for the 14-member board of the FHLBank of Seattle to $1.44 million for the 18-member board of the Indianapolis Bank.Compensation for the position of board chair at the Banks ranged from $60,000 at the FHLBanks of Boston and Seattle to $100,000 or more at the FHLBanks of New York, Indianapolis and Topeka.

“As lawmakers, it is time to open up our eyes and open up our minds to alternative models and a pathway forward,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, at the beginning of a hearing he convened this week to consider housing finance models without explicit government guaranties. Hensarling, along with many Republicans in his committee, is angling to replace the government-sponsored enterprises with some sort of a non-agency market. However, a number of obstacles exist in that path, including the preference among Democrats and a significant portion of industry players for the GSEs’ functions to be replaced with some form of government guaranty. Most of the witnesses at the hearing provided...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities remained the preferred investment choice of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks during the first quarter of 2013, with a negligible decrease from the previous quarter, while a number of FHLBanks indicated no plans to sell the riskier non-agency MBS in their portfolios. A new analysis and ranking by Inside The GSEs based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency found overall MBS investments for the dozen FHLBanks declined 1.0 percent to $137.14 billion between the fourth and first quarters. However, non-agency MBS, which made up 18 percent of the total FHLBank system’s share of MBS during the first three months of this year, fell to $24.69 billion as of March 31, 2013. This was down 2.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012 and down 13.5 percent from $28.52 billion from the same period a year ago.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency would see the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks come up with their own internal credit rating system under a proposed rule issued by the FHFA two weeks ago. Published in the May 23 Federal Register, the Finance Agency proposal would remove a number of credit rating references and requirements in certain safety and soundness regulations affecting the FHLBanks. FHFA regulations require the FHLBanks to assess the credit-worthiness of a security or money market instrument that either the Bank is considering investing in or the Bank is helping another financial institution invest in.

The amount of non-agency MBS held by the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks continued its steady decline during the first quarter of 2013. Non-agency MBS investments by the FHLBanks came to $24.69 billion as of March 31, 2013, down 2.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012 and off 13.5 percent from $28.52 billion in the same period a year ago. Non-agency MBS made up...[Includes one data chart]

The 12 Federal Home Loan Banks should expect increased “regulatory attention” going forward to ensure their GSE funding advantage remains focused on their mission, the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency told bank directors and executives last week. During a speech at the annual Federal Home Loan Bank Directors Conference in Washington, DC, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco noted that as advances and mortgage assets declined during the economic downturn, FHLBank balance sheets became less “mission oriented.” “Our focus on mission assets is not only an exercise in adhering to the essential mission for which Congress designed the system; it stems from safety and soundness concerns based on recent experience,” said DeMarco.

The watchdog agency charged with overseeing the regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks said it plans to remain “active on the law enforcement front.” In its semi-annual report to Congress issued this week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General gave a tally of its accomplishments for the six-month period ending March 31, noting that it issued 13 audit, evaluation survey and white paper reports, and participated in several criminal and civil investigations.