Joseph Otting’s dual role as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency puts him in a position to push hard for changes that will help create a “healthy” non-agency mortgage market, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group.
At a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Kathy Kraninger, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, assured lawmakers that she will not disrupt the mortgage industry by abruptly terminating the so-called GSE patch.
With Mark Calabria’s confirmation as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency seemingly imminent and the prospect looming of some kind of administrative reform of the government-sponspored enterprises, industry groups are getting anxious.
This week, Mark Calabria moved a step closer to heading the Federal Housing Finance Agency. His nomination as the agency’s director was approved by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on a party-line vote of 13-12.
Now that the smoke has cleared from Mark Calabria’s confirmation hearing to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, industry stakeholders are pondering the first step in administrative reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: eliminating the quarterly payments the two mortgage giants make to the Treasury Department.
In a remarkable political balancing act during his confirmation hearing Thursday morning, Mark Calabria, President Trump’s nominee to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, told Senate Banking Committee members they need not worry about his history of controversial and inflammatory remarks on FHFA and the government-sponsored enterprises.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, stirred the housing-finance reform pot last week, releasing a plan to bring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship.
The road to reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took another left turn this week with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin applauding Congressional efforts on the initiative but then declaring, if need be, Treasury would go it alone.
RSS