Senators dove into how to ensure housing finance reform serves lenders of all sizes, just as the Trump administration moved closer to crafting its own GSE plan.
Lawmakers still have a long way to go before enacting housing finance reform, but the testimony could signal how future legislative talks will play out.
The government-sponsored enterprises have continued to expand over the past decade, despite being in conservatorship. New leadership at the FHFA should reverse this trend.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency in recent years has required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to contribute to the funds every March, but has yet to make a 2019 request. Housing groups see the delay as a troubling sign.
In the second lawsuit of its kind, more than a dozen of the world's largest banks are accused of price fixing on roughly $486 billion of bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Mark Calabria has notably criticized the government’s role in housing, but some groups have taken him at his word when he told senators that he supported affordable housing initiatives.
There’s bipartisan consensus that the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are unsustainable, but that may not be enough for lawmakers to upend the current system.
