Attorneys for disenfranchised GSE shareholders have already filed a notice to appeal this week’s surprise dismissal by a Washington, DC, federal judge of the lawsuits challenging the Treasury Department’s 2012 “net-worth sweep” of nearly all profits generated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, a legal expert notes that the ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia makes a tall order even taller for investors taking on the government.
After six years of government control of the GSEs, Congressional inaction has ensured no legislative solution to housing finance reform anytime soon so the administration must take action, according to a white paper unveiled this week. Clifford Rossi, adjunct professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, told Inside The GSEs that a legislative fix to GSE reform is the ideal solution.
A federal judge in Florida this week dismissed a lawsuit brought by the National Low Income Housing Coalition seeking to force Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s conservator to make good on the GSEs’ statutory obligations to contribute to the National Housing Trust Fund. In the summer of 2013, the National Low Income Housing Coalition filed suit arguing that since the GSEs returned to profitability in 2012, the Federal Housing Finance Agency should have directed Fannie and Freddie to begin to pay up.
Efforts to reduce the government-sponsored enterprises’ footprint using guaranty fees and loan limits should be left to Congress, according to Bob Ryan, a special advisor to the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Meanwhile, officials at the Treasury Department suggest that the FHFA does have a role in setting policy that will inform any housing finance reform action by Congress.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency can and should improve its oversight of Freddie Mac information technology investments, concluded a new audit by the agency’s official watchdog. Last week’s Inspector General audit noted that Freddie is making “substantial investments” in IT in order to better support its operations and reduce risk. The GSE’s planned IT expenditures over three years are expected to exceed $1 billion, the IG added.
FHFA Principal Reduction Pilot Program. A bill filed by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, before Congress left town last month would create a shared-appreciation mortgage program in which banks would reduce the mortgage principal for eligible underwater homeowners. Under the Preserving American Homeownership Act, S. 2854, the pilot programs – to be established by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the FHA – would entitle banks to a portion of the increased value of the home when the market improves.
Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $17 billion in new home-equity loans during the second quarter of 2014, a 30.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. But the volume of outstanding home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages held in portfolio by depository institutions – the biggest players in the HEL market – continued to dwindle. Banks, thrifts and credit unions reported a total of $540.4 billion of HELOCs on their books at the end of June, down 0.9 percent from March, along with a 1.5 percent drop in closed-end seconds. It continued...[Includes three data charts]
Several large nonbank lenders have banded together to form what they call a “working group” to address key regulatory issues that they say are stifling their growth and future prospects for success in a rapidly changing mortgage industry. The group’s members – including Ocwen Financial – will initially strive to educate and inform regulators about nonbanks, but will not lobby Congress. Members of the group stress that the nonbank collective is not a trade organization and does not seek that status. For now, Ocwen is...
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