For decades, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped working-class Americans get mortgages. That essential and powerful role in the national economy is fading.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
In a somewhat surprising decision, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling announced his retirement from Congress on Tuesday, but speculation immediately grew that he could fill a regulatory post.
