FHFA

The Senate voted 52-44 to confirm Mark Calabria as the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) motion for cloture was approved.

The financial industry has expressed strong support for many of his views on reshaping the secondary mortgage market, including ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but he’s faced criticism for his past comments on FHFA, affordable housing goals and the conservatorship.  

Learn what the industry had to say about his confirmation.

As the Senate Banking Committee engaged in discussion regarding potential housing finance reforms, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum outlining his administration’s goals for enacting sweeping reforms to the secondary market.

The financial services industry expressed support for the administration’s stated goals of ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and promoting competition in the secondary market while providing taxpayer protections.

Find out more details about the administration’s reform priorities and the industry’s take on the matter.

Nearly six months after naming him acting CEO, Fannie Mae announced that it would be removing the word “acting” from Hugh Frater’s title, effective March 26.

Frater, who has served on the Fannie Mae board since 2016, was tapped to take up interim CEO duties upon the retirement of Tim Mayopoulos, who stepped down from the role last October.

Find out more about the appointment.

For lenders and compliance attorneys preparing to implement procedures necessary to comply with the government-sponsored enterprises’ (GSEs) new Uniform Residential Loan Application (Form 1003), there are bound to be questions that come up along the way.

To provide answers, Dodd Frank Update invited DocMagic Chief Compliance Officer Gavin Ales and Garris Horn PLLC Partner Richard Horn to offer straight-forward, comprehensive explanations pertaining to a myriad of common questions about the new requirements in a recent webinar entitled “New Loan Application (URLA): Your Questions Answered.”

Read on to learn more about what insight the experts have to offer.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a final rule requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to align programs, policies and practices that affect the cash flows of certain Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS). The rule is intended to help improve the predictability of cash flows to MBS investors.

The rule will apply in instances where a “to-be-announced” MBS is offered to settle a trade for an actual MBS that will be delivered at a later date and time. Such securities are announced 48 hours prior to the established trade settlement date.

Find out more details about the rule and commentary that was considered.

Senate Banking Committee voted along party lines to advance Mark Calabria’s nomination to serve as the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and also approved the advancement of nominees for the National Credit Union Administration Board and the Treasury Department.

The fact that Calabria’s committee vote was identical to the margin that advanced Kathy Kraninger’s nomination to become director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does not reflect the difference between their confirmation hearings.

Read on for more details.

Asserting that it could negatively impact mortgage rates and credit availability, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) wrote to the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Joseph Otting, asking him how the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s current expected credit loss (CECL) standard will affect Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Luetkemeyer included several questions addressing his concerns about how implementation of the CECL standard will affect the government-sponsored enterprises’ capital reserves and lending abilities.

Find out what specific concerns he raised.

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Mark Calabria, faced questions about his views on reforming the secondary mortgage market to increase competition and the necessary regulatory certainty to continue to guarantee 30-year mortgages and affordable housing goals, among other things, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee.

Several Democrats pressed Calabria on views he expressed in past blog posts and other writings in which he was critical of the FHFA and its model for overseeing the government-sponsored enterprises.

Find out more details about what was addressed during his testimony.

A plan to end the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proposed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) quickly has gained support from the financial marketplace.

An outline of the proposal calls for privatizing secondary market guarantors and restructuring the Federal Housing Finance Agency into a bipartisan board of directors, among other reforms.

Find out more details about the plan and what the industry is saying.

Six months after a federal court found its structure unconstitutional, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) independent status is being questioned by prominent congressional Democrats with regard to the agency’s failure to loop in Congress on purported plans to end the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Referencing media reports that FHFA acting director Joseph Otting had discussed such plans internally with FHFA staffers and with the Trump administration, Democratic congressional leaders urged Otting to clarify what plans he has for the government-sponsored enterprises during his time as interim director.

Find out more about what the legislators had to say.