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.
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.
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.
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.
For decades, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped working-class Americans get mortgages. That essential and powerful role in the national economy is fading.
The House Financial Services Committee began consideration of 14 bills on Tuesday, including one that would stop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from being released by the government and another hailed as helping the underbanked in rural areas.
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.
