Regulatory reform

Banking regulatory agencies Thursday announced that they would raise the aggregate loan commitment threshold for syndicated loans to be included in the Shared National Credit program from $20 million to $100 million.

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.

Until recently, there was a consensus among policymakers that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed to be eliminated. That just changed. Here's why.

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."

The financial services industry has cheered a proposed reduction in the corporate tax rate, but a lower rate could force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to write down assets, increasing the odds that the companies will need Treasury support.

The regulatory relief bill would raise the SIFI threshold to $250 billion of assets and allow mortgages held in portfolio to be counted as "qualified," among other items, but it is far less sweeping than institutions had hoped.

A bill that would ease Basel III capital requirements on commercial real estate loans could level the playing field between depository and nonbank lenders and spur more construction lending if it passes in the Senate.

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.

A GAO determination has effectively nullified a 2013 leveraged lending guidance. But that leaves the future uncertain about what, if anything, regulators will devise to replace it — and how banks should treat such loans in the meantime.

Though FHFA Director Mel Watt stopped short of saying he would break with a Treasury agreement that forces all profits of the GSEs to go to the government, he emphasized that it couldn’t continue indefinitely.

Lawmakers like Sen. Tim Scott may feel differently about some elements in a Senate regulatory relief bill depending on whether CFPB Director Cordray is remaining in office until his term expires in July.

The gulf between those at the upper ends of the wealth ladder and lower-income Americans has worsened markedly since the financial crisis, despite the trillions of subsidies that taxpayers provide for housing.

Dividend payments by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are due to come one day after the U.S. is estimated to hit the debt ceiling, raising the stakes in the debate over whether those payments should continue.

Credit risk transfers have emerged as more than just a method for mitigating taxpayer exposure. They could be a key component of comprehensive housing finance reform.

House lawmakers including Jeb Hensarling are preparing to move on a series of targeted regulatory relief bills in an effort to give Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, more leeway when he tries to craft a relief measure.

The Senate is set to begin teeing up housing finance reform discussions at a Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, but many are skeptical that Congress will be able to succeed where it has failed in the past.

Housing finance reform discussions are heating up and there's a growing sense that legislation can be enacted sooner rather than later. Here's why.

The Treasury plan includes a slew of items that don’t require Congress to act, and appear feasible in the short term. Here's a guide to what changes could be made.