The agency has picked Houlihan Lokey Capital to help it identify any financial, regulatory or market risks in its path to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship.
The liquid assets required of nonbank seller/servicers will rise from 3.5 basis points to 4.0 bps for the unpaid principal balance of their enterprise servicing.
Among the more interesting changes: the FHFA, for the first time ever, is asking GSE customers to hold capital against the dollar amount of Ginnie Mae mortgages they service: 35 basis points.
Policy changes impacting 15% of GDP in an election year are inherently risky, according to Isaac Boltansky of Compass Point. The result, he said, is likely to be “a long and winding road” toward housing-finance reform.
The bulk of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s prevention actions were aimed at home retention, with 20,370 loans modified, repayment plans negotiated on 5,965 delinquent loans and 3,328 units receiving some sort of forbearance.
FHFA Director Mark Calabria walked back the idea of using a consent decree as part of the agency’s plan to recap and release Fannie and Freddie from conservatorship.