Congressman Richard Baker (R., La.) has announced 13 additional supporters of his bill, HR 3703, that would tighten regulation over the government-sponsored enterprises. However, Baker still does not have enough backers of the bill to move it out of committee and into the full House. Baker claims he can garner enough support to move it to the House this legislative session.
Canadian Home Income Plan (CHIP), the country's only issuer of reverse-equity mortgages, recently priced its initial public offering, which received strong investor interest. Nineteen investors participated in the $119 million transaction. The issue was backed by reverse mortgages and separated into two tranches: an $85 million five-year, fixed-rate tranche and a $34 million five-year floating-rate part. The second tranche was oversubscribed with orders running up to just over $100 million.
Congress may be able to keep Federal Housing Administration reverse mortgage, condominium, and home improvement loan programs running through September if it can complete action on a legislative branch appropriations bill this week. Last Tuesday, House and Senate conferees agreed to attach $40 million in credit subsidy funding to the appropriations bill.
The Bond Market Association announced Eric L. Foster as vice president and assistant general counsel. In that position, he will serve as the principal staff advisor to the Government and Federal Agency Securities Division. Foster will focus on policy, regulatory and market-practice issues, working with member-firm representatives in the United States, London and Tokyo. Some of the recent issues the division has addressed include the Treasury Department's continuing buybacks of outstanding debt securities and the emerging status of Agency securities as potential benchmarks in the debt markets.
