News Topic: GSE reform

The Senate Banking Committee is expected to soon release a bipartisan bill that would significantly reshape the housing finance market, but key issues – and whether whatever legislation it produces can be squared with other players – remain unclear. ... Read full article

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., has emerged as one of the most outspoken members of Congress when it comes to fintech, both embracing its potential and calling for regulatory guardrails. ... Read full article

The announcement Tuesday by Sen. Orrin Hatch that he will retire at the end of the year could have a ripple effect throughout the Senate, including the leadership of the Banking Committee. ... Read full article

Over the past year, the focus of several banking policymakers has been how much the regulatory pendulum might swing back toward the industry’s liking. That theme will likely continue in 2018. ... Read full article

A regulatory relief package is likely to come out of the Senate in the new year, and lawmakers could follow it up with a housing finance reform push. But the midterm election could cause some reform initiatives to grind to a halt. ... Read full article

The GSEs are on their way to paying back the money they owed the government under the original bailout deal made at the height of the financial crisis, making 2018 an opportune time for an overhaul of the housing finance market. ... Read full article

The announcement Thursday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt agreed to let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each build a $3 billion capital buffer avoided a potential crisis. ... Read full article

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be allowed to build capital buffers to protect against losses under an agreement between the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Thursday. ... Read full article

JPMorgan Chase get a new branch banking leader; Trump's anti-Wells tweet stokes concerns; blockchain, GSE survival, and more in this week's top stories. ... Read full article

The government-sponsored enterprises are at the heart of our housing finance problems, not the solutions. ... Read full article

For decades, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped working-class Americans get mortgages. That essential and powerful role in the national economy is fading. ... Read full article

For the second week in a row, the CFPB's leadership shakeout dominated readers' attention, while a regional banker discussed efforts to fight hacking and the impact of the tax cuts, and bitcoin's price soared. ... Read full article

Until recently, there was a consensus among policymakers that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed to be eliminated. That changed this week. Here's why. ... Read full article

House Financial Services Committee Jeb Hensarling shifted tactics on housing finance reform Wednesday, acknowledging that a bill he’s pushed for years to virtually eliminate the government’s role in the mortgage market lacks the support to become law. ... Read full article

Testing of the common securitization platform is taking longer than expected, but the Federal Housing Finance Agency said it won't delay the 2019 launch of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's new single "uniform mortgage-backed security." ... Read full article

Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's likely interim head of the CFPB, has taken tough stances on the CFPB, its payday lending rule, housing finance reform and other issues pending before the agency. ... Read full article

The White House and congressional GOP leaders are eyeing a tight window between tax reform passage and the 2018 midterms to pass housing finance reform. And with key policymakers readying their exit, the effort could be the most concerted push yet. ... Read full article

Mark Calabria, the chief economic adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, said the administration is focused for now on more pressing issues than GSE reform, including addressing housing damage from recent hurricanes. ... Read full article