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Inside The GSEs

February 17, 2010

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Is GSE Underwriting Beginning to Ease?

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s books of business in the fourth quarter showed some faint signs of loosening credit, even though their overall 2009 books were among the most conservatively underwritten in some time. For instance, the two GSEs saw their collective loan-to-value ratios rise from 67.1 percent in the third quarter to 68.7 percent in the fourth... [Includes one chart] Read More

FHFA Preps for Raising FHLB Min. Capital

The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently issued a proposed rule that would enable the agency to temporarily increase the minimum capital requirements for the Federal Home Loan Banks as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, given that Fannie and Freddie remain in federal conservatorship primarily because of their inadequate capital levels... Read More

Can Fannie, Freddie Portfolios Handle Big Buyouts?

Investors in GSE mortgage-backed securities were already anxious about the Federal Reserve’s upcoming exit from the market at the end of March, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they would significantly ramp up their purchases of 120-day delinquent loans from their MBS pools, approximately $200 billion worth, as a result of an accounting change... Read More

Should GSE Loan Limit Follow Drop in Home Prices?

Federal policymakers interested in getting private sector players back onto the mortgage finance playing field might want to consider dropping the GSE loan limit, some market participants, industry observers and GSE critics have begun suggesting. Industry executives such as Amherst Securities Group CEO Sean Dobson recently identified the high loan limit as an obstacle to any... Read More

Frank Pushing White House on GSEs, Housing Policy

As some of his colleagues push ahead with legislation specifically targeting numerous issues with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-MA, is pressing the Obama administration to reveal its intentions for not only the future of the GSEs but of the nation’s housing finance policy in general. Last week, Frank announced he has... Read More

GOP Bill Calls for Greater Accountability for GSEs

With the Obama administration’s input on the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still pending, Rep. Judy Biggert, R-IL, ranking GOP member of the House Financial Services Committee, has gone ahead with legislation of her own to press the White House on the creation of an Inspector General and to increase the amount of accountability from the GSEs. The legislation, H.R. 4581... Read More

Fed Plays Smaller Role in GSE Debt Market

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has begun scaling back its purchases of GSE debt in recent months, although its involvement in this market never approached the dominant role the central banking system played in the agency mortgage-backed securities arena in 2009.Fed purchases of GSE debt began to decline significantly in November, when monthly acquisitions... [Includes one chart] Read More

News In Brief

FHLBank of Atlanta Cracks Down on Subprime Collateral: The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta has joined the ranks of those FHLBanks... Fannie, In a First, Endorses Freddie’s Default Indicator: For the first time since it had a Freddie Mac to compete with... FHFA Proposes New Housing Goals for Fannie and Freddie: As Inside The GSEs was going to press, the Federal Housing Finance Agency... Read More

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