Mel Watt

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is scrapping a capital proposal it released last year and will seek comments on a new plan in 2020.

The White House has officially nominated Mark Calabria as the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The White House said that Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting will serve as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency beginning Jan. 6, after Director Mel Watt’s term ends.

The administration’s reported interest in having the White House aide run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator signals a focus on constraining the mortgage giants’ role in the housing market.

Freddie Mac is promoting Executive Vice President David Brickman to president and will consider him among possible candidates to be the agency's next CEO after Don Layton retires next year.

Maybe political winds or another downturn will spark housing finance reform. But 10 years after the conservatorships began, the companies are still in perpetual limbo.

The agency said the market for larger rental investors may not need additional liquidity from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The regulator of the government-sponsored enterprises has substantial authority to intervene as a legislative stalemate continues.

The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled an FHFA oversight hearing for September in the wake of waste, fraud and abuse allegations.

The biggest impact may be to focus the administration’s efforts on selecting a nominee to succeed Director Mel Watt, whose term ends in January.

Whoever succeeds current Director Mel Watt will have a front-and-center role in efforts to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

With ruling in GSE case, the two agencies are emerging as the test subjects for a legal showdown over their authority.

A federal appeals court in Texas agreed with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders that the FHFA, led by a single director, violates the separation of powers.

The groups applauded a proposal to establish minimum GSE capital requirements, but called for more immediate steps to release the companies from conservatorship.

The agency proposed new minimum capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would only go into effect if the government ends its conservatorships.

In the continued absence of legislation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator announced work on a new capital framework.

After several years of preparation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will start issuing a new, common mortgage-backed security starting June 3, 2019, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday.

Despite a legislative push by some senators and other stakeholders to jump-start housing finance reform, efforts to form consensus over a bill once again are stuck in neutral.

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.

The two government-sponsored enterprises have relied on the “classic” FICO credit scoring model for the past 12 years. But the Federal Housing Finance Agency is weighing whether the GSEs should upgrade to more recent scoring alternatives.