Nomura Holdings is unlikely to suffer a hit in ratings because of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s mortgage-backed securities lawsuit, but the litigation may yet prove costly to the Japanese financial holding company, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings. Nomura went to trial on March 16 to defend itself against allegations that it misrepresented the underlying asset quality of MBS it sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to the financial crisis ...
Creditworthy buyers are being constrained by dated scoring systems, according to a study released this week by VantageScore Solutions, which says there are benefits to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as consumers, if a new model is adopted. The enterprises could increase their revenue while expanding access to mortgages to a more diverse group of consumers. The credit reporting company has been working to get Fannie and Freddie to embrace a new credit reporting system for years now. Its new report comes on the heels of the Federal Housing Finance Agency comments in its 2015 scorecard directing the GSEs to look into potential alternative forms of credit scoring.
New GSE Reserve Fund Bill. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, introduced legislation on March 26 requiring the GSEs to send future profits to a newly established reserve fund administered by the FHFA. The bill is titled ''Enterprise Secondary Reserve Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act of 2015'' and it would “establish a secondary reserve fund for a housing enterprise under conservatorship to protect taxpayers against loss in the event of a housing downturn, and for other purposes." Jumpstart GSE Reform Amendment. On March 25, Sens. Bob Corker, D-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, offered an amendment to the Jumpstart GSE Reform Act that would prohibit...