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Inside The GSEs

June 30, 2017

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Support for Reforming Fannie, Freddie Evident at Senate Hearing

During a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing late this week housing finance reform options, there appeared to be a consensus about preserving the parts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that work and providing better access to credit for small lenders. There was also more confidence that GSE reform could be addressed sooner rather than later. Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-ID, said the committee is “actively exploring a number of options.” He said recapitalizing and releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac without significant reform is not a solution and added that it’s important to have affordable access to the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Read More

CA Remains Top GSE Mortgage Market in 1Q 2017

California remained the top state for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac activity in the first three months of 2017 as volume reached $42.92 billion, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. And that’s higher than the $36.18 billion in volume the Golden State had in the first quarter of 2016. Texas trailed in second place with $14.22 billion in volume, up from the $12.43 billion in volume a year earlier. Rounding out the top five for GSE volume were Florida ($12.14 billion), Colorado ($8.62 billion) and New York, ($8.32 billion.) Also in California, the average Fannie and Freddie loan was $311,992 in the first quarter, an increase from the average loan size of $307,302 in the first quarter of 2016. Read More

FHFA Suggests New Housing Goals for Low-Income Purchases

The Federal Housing Finance Agency proposed new single-family and multifamily housing goals for the GSEs to take on over the next two years. The current goals expire at the end of the year, so the new benchmarks are for 2018 through 2020. One of the more noticeable changes was that the FHFA wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase the amount of low-income refinances they purchase. Currently, the GSEs’ goal for the amount of low-income refinances is 21 percent of purchases, but that number jumps to 27 percent under the purchase goal. While uncertainty surrounding interest rates remains a factor, the FHFA noted that the low-income... Read More

NAR Suggests GSE Capital Building Plan to FHFA Director Watt

The National Association of Realtors recommended that the Federal Housing Finance Agency create what it called a “mortgage market liquidity fund” as a way to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to rebuild capital. In a letter that went out this week to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt and copied to the Treasury, the trade group expressed concerns about the dwindling capital buffer that’s scheduled to hit zero by Jan. 1, 2018.If Fannie and/or Freddie posts a loss, they will need to tap a line of credit with Treasury. And with no capital reserves, NAR said that the taxpayers will feel the impact while access to credit and homeownership will be stifled. Read More

Groups Explore GSE Reform Principles for Small Lenders

As many believe that housing reform has begun to transform from all talk to action, more industry groups are adding their two cents on what a changing housing finance reform landscape should look like. “Now, more than ever since the financial crisis, Washington D.C., is abuzz with talk of housing finance reform,” said the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions. “Credit union loans provide the high quality necessary to improve the salability of the GSEs’ securities,” it added. The trade group said that in the future credit unions should be able to sell directly to the GSEs without having to aggregate their loans through large lenders. Read More

Moelis Executive Reiterates Views On GSE Recap and Release

Landon Parsons, senior advisor of Moelis & Company, a firm that proposes a recap and release blueprint for the GSEs, said the government is too involved in housing. Parsons spoke at a Financial Services Roundtable forum earlier this month focused on GSE reform. The senior advisor admitted to having clients with skin in the game, but said he advises “non-litigating GSE shareholders.” He acknowledged that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a “social good” component to them, but Parsons said many of the policies were flawed. Parsons said most of the GSE reform plans to date have been written by advocacy or special interest groups and have introduced concepts that often require... Read More

U.S. Mortgage Insurers Analyzes GSE Reform Proposals

The U.S. Mortgage Insurers weighed in on how four think tank and trade group GSE reform proposals align with the group’s reform principles. Mortgage insurers have said that protecting taxpayers, promoting stability, ensuring accessibility and fostering transparency are important components of a successful reform plan. The Milken Institute plan recommends that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be taken out of conservatorship and their charters amended to turn them into mutual entities owned and operated by seller-servicers, with Ginnie acting as a stand-alone government corporation. The USMI said the proposal works to protect taxpayers by requiring more private capital and promotes stability by utilizing Ginnie’s existing infrastructure and systems. Read More

New Bill Would Let Some Captive Insurers Remain in FHLBanks

Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-IL, and Gwen Moore, D-WI, introduced a bill in favor of captive insurers maintaining their Federal Home Loan Bank membership. Captive insurance lenders that joined the system prior to January 2016 currently have five years to terminate their FHLBank membership. Those that came into the system after that date have one year to exit the system. H.R. 289, the Housing Opportunity Mortgage Expansion (HOME) Act, would allow the five-year captives to maintain their membership, as long as they can demonstrate a commitment to residential mortgage activities. The bill’s sponsors explained that the legislation supports the notion that companies with a history and mission of supporting residential housing should be able to continue to serve their communities. Read More

Fed Governor Criticizes Fannie, Freddie MBS, Implicit Guarantees

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said that government involvement in securitization weakened the link between the mortgage loan and the lender. He also warned that another global housing crisis could be looming. During a speech at the FNB-Riksbank Macroprudential Conference in Amsterdam, he acknowledged that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS helped to expand mortgage credit availability, but added that the rapid rise in credit access coupled with rising house prices can threaten the financial system’s resilience. “One particularly problematic policy is government guarantees of mortgage-related assets,” said Fischer. He mentioned the period leading up to the financial crisis when investors viewed agency MBS as having an implicit government guarantee, “despite the GSEs’ representations to the contrary.” Read More

MBA Opposes FHFA Suggestion to Regulate Nonbanks

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s recommendation that it gain authority to oversee nonbanks didn’t go over too well with some in the mortgage industry. The GSE regulator argued that oversight of nonbank mortgage servicers only happens via contractual provisions when possible. In the FHFA’s Annual Report to Congress, it said other federal safety and soundness regulators are allowed statutory authority to examine companies that provide services to depository institutions. David Stevens, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s president and CEO, questions the purpose of the FHFA recommendation and said it would only lead to more unnecessary regulation. Read More

Warner Speaks on GSE Reform, Suggests a Plan in the Works?

Congress has GSE reform on the radar and even before this week’s hearing on GSE reform, Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, said he was optimistic that housing finance reform might happen sooner than many expect. Warner, who co-authored a reform bill four years ago, recently said, “This may surprise some folks, but I think the stars may align where you could actually see housing-finance reform happen in front of some of the Dodd-Frank reform.” The Virginia senator made the comments at a Mortgage Bankers Association conference in Washington, DC, on June 20. He said there appears to be bipartisan consensus on housing finance reform. Read More

GSE Roundup

Joint Trade Letter Requests Comment Extension on Language Access. Eight trade groups, including the American Bankers Association and Mortgage Bankers Association, wrote the Federal Housing Finance Agency this week asking for a 45-day extension to comment on FHFA’s Request for Input on Improving Language Access in Mortgage Lending and Servicing. “The RFI reflects the breadth and difficulties of this issue, as it asks for extensive information,” the groups said, adding that the deadline also coincides with other RFIs. Fannie Announces Two CIRTs on $19.8 Billion of Single-Family Loans. Fannie Mae announced this week that it has completed the second set of traditional Credit Insurance Risk Transfer transactions of... Read More

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