Fannie Mae’s announcement of an update to its HomeReady program drew applause from the crowd at the MBA’s independent mortgage bankers conference this week.

A tangled web of climate risk, shady insurers, shoddy ratings services and lax insurance rules at the GSEs may snarl Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in unexpected counterparty risk.

Fed researchers model an economy in which safe, stable agency MBS are the instigators of market turmoil and financial crisis.

The new framework for social bonds links them more directly to the Mission Index, formerly known as the Social Index.

The new data points should speed up delivery for lenders. Starting June 3, lenders will be able to enter the new ULDD collateral data points.

Small depositories warn changes at the FHLBs could increase members’ costs and reduce access to FHLB funding. Worse, these changes could take place without formal rulemaking.

Conservatives argue that the government subsidy of the FHLBanks doesn’t support housing and mostly benefits large banks rather than homeowners.

Thousands of stakeholders responded to FHFA’s RFI on the prospect of the GSEs establishing tenant protections for the multifamily properties they back. Most respondents were tenants.

The limits on Fannie’s and Freddie’s annual investment in low-income housing tax credit programs has jumped from $850 million to $1 billion each.

A new option in Desktop Underwriter allows lenders to pre-qualify borrowers with a single soft pull credit file. However, a hard pull tri-merge credit report will still be required with the actual loan application.