Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say they support the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s proposal to include a leverage ratio on their future capital requirements.
With the final rollout scheduled for June, FHFA, the GSEs, and Common Securitization Solutions are scrambling to make sure participants in the to-be-announced MBS market are ready for the big changes ahead.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the government-sponsored enterprises say they’re on track for the June launch of the single security, but industry groups still have several concerns about the pending seismic shift in how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issue single-family mortgage-backed securities.
It remains to be seen if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s controversial regulation-by-enforcement approach is as dead as the agency’s current leadership says it is, industry attorneys said.
The FHA is calling for broader statutory authority for the Mortgagee Review Board in determining the type and amount of penalties the board can assess to strengthen lender enforcement and eliminate the need for False Claims Act cases.
The proposed capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aim for risk-based standards that will allow the government-sponsored enterprises – and future competitors – to earn an acceptable return while remaining strong enough to withstand severe economic downturns.