Fannie Mae

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has appeared willing to take its own steps to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but legislation would be necessary to create an explicit guarantee of the mortgage system.

Director Mark Calabria urged lawmakers to grant the agency chartering authority similar to that of bank regulators to boost competition in the mortgage market.

Prepayment speeds for loans included in agency mortgage-backed securities were up approximately 20% both monthly and annually during May as the decline in interest rates boosted activity, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was adamant that the Trump administration won’t just let Fannie and Freddie build up their capital buffers and then release the companies. He also said he backed an explicit government guarantee, something only Congress can do.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has far more authority to upend the status quo than most realize, according to a new report.

Consumers' knowledge of the mortgage process and what it takes to purchase a home has not improved from four years ago and lenders have an opportunity to fill that need, Fannie Mae said.

The consolidation of the two companies' securitization platforms into a single bond market became official on Monday.

The nonconforming market is ready to absorb most of the government-sponsored enterprise loans covered by the QM patch, but not all of them, according Redwood Trust.

The launch of a combined securitization platform for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is meant to ease the transition to a new housing finance system. But questions remain about how the mortgage sphere will adapt to the single security.

Delinquencies associated with the government-sponsored enterprises high loan-to-value ratio programs that target low-to-moderate income homebuyers are slightly better than expected, at least early on, according to Fitch.