Efforts in the Senate and House to reverse the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s rule that ended captive insurer membership in the Federal Home Loan Banks is getting pushback from a handful of FHLBanks. Six FHLBank presidents wrote lawmakers to express their strong opposition to reversing the final rule on FHLB membership issued in January 2016. They included the FHLBanks of Des Moines, New York, Pittsburgh, Topeka, Boston and Dallas. Among them, they serve financial institutions in 33 states. Despite receiving hundreds of comments against the proposed rule, the FHFA implemented the ban because it was concerned about the growing number of captive insurers gaining FHLBank membership access to take advantage of cheaper financing.

The deadline for comments on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s proposed capital rule for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac does not close until next month and so far, there have been about 25 official written comments registered and various opinions floated around Washington. Michael Stegman, senior fellow at the Milken Institute, said he was encouraged by FHFA’s proposed capital rule for the GSEs and Ed DeMarco, president of the Financial Services Roundtable Housing Policy Center, said the proposal should compel everyone to think about the implications. “This rule is much too important and far too complex to be digested and commented on in 60-days,” he said. “A critical question in evaluating this...

Mnuchin Wants GSE Reform in Next Congress. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is worried about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expanding their already large role in the mortgage market and said he’s not against taking administrative action absent a legislative solution for reforming the mortgage giants.During the secretary’s annual testimony to the House Financial Services Committee late last week, Mnuchin reiterated his position in wanting lawmakers to reform the GSEs and said he expects that to happen in the next Congress. “This is something that I am determined, in the next Congress, should be a major focus of ours, hopefully on...

While the GSEs have been engaging in risk-based pricing for mortgage guarantees since the crisis, very large cross subsidies remain, according to one panelist from the Federal Reserve…

A HUD spokesman told this news organization that “non-U.S. citizens without lawful residency in the U.S. are not eligible for FHA-insured mortgages.”

Noticeably absent from the letter: the FHLBs of Chicago and San Francisco…

Kraninger also avoided making a commitment to defend the CFPB’s constitutionality...

Of course, there are some in the industry who will argue Fannie and Freddie are hardly zombie-like at all...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should adjust loan originator compensation rules to provide lenders with some flexibility, according to mortgage industry participants.

Republican and Democrat leaders of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee battled over minority requests for extensive documents about Kathy Kraninger, the Trump administration’s nominee to become the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.