With Trump being a real estate developer – though that part of his career is on hold right now – it will be interesting to see if he takes a hands-on approach to reforming the GSEs...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – wards of the federal government for over nine years now – are poised to report stellar earnings for the third quarter, likely blowing past results of the prior two periods, according to an analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. Not only did the two government-sponsored enterprises benefit from a strong origination market in the third quarter, and robust guarantee fee income, but a previously announced legal settlement with Royal Bank of Scotland will soon ...
Nomura Holdings and the Royal Bank of Scotland fought a long battle but eventually lost in a court appeal last week when the judge decided not to undo an earlier order forcing them to pay the government $839 million. The settlement was based on the banks not being truthful about non-agency MBS sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to the housing meltdown. The firms’ lawyers chose to appeal the 2015 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote. She found the companies ...
The RNC document says the GOP “recognizes the sanctity of property rights in America,” which should warm the hearts of GSE common and junior preferred shareholders…
There was a sense of urgency in FHFA Director Mel Watt’s comments to Congress this week about reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As the year winds down and the GSEs’ capital buffer becomes non-existent in January 2018, the FHFA head voiced his frustration about the lack of action from Congress on addressing the nine-year conservatorship. “These conservatorships have been unprecedented in scope, complexity and duration, especially when you consider that the enterprises support over $5 trillion in mortgage loan guarantees,” he said testifying before the House Financial Services Committee. House lawmakers fired off questions to Watt on everything from flood insurance to the qualified-mortgage rule and credit-risk transfers during this week’s hearing.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General said late last week that the FHFA is not doing a good job of monitoring the escalating costs associated with Fannie Mae’s new headquarters being constructed in downtown Washington, DC. This is the second time the agency watchdog has blasted the FHFA for not properly overseeing the build-out of the leased office space comprised of two office towers connected by multiple glass bridges. In a new audit, the IG questioned upgrades on the Class A office building that cost more than the typical $175 per rentable square foot.
Fannie Mae has partnered with the state housing finance agency in New Hampshire to pilot a program that allows buyers of manufactured homes access to 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgages. The program kicked off last week and buyers must purchase in qualified resident-owned communities (ROC). The Home Preferred Manufactured Housing ROC loan, created in conjunction with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, gives both buyers and current ROC homeowners affordable financing and low-cost mortgage insurance options. New Hampshire was the perfect place to pilot the program because of the way it treats MH in ROCs, Patrick McCarthy, Fannie’s vice president of alternative real estate-owned dispositions told Inside The GSEs. “It treats them as real property whereas in....
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders are feeling more confident they will prevail in lawsuits over the Treasury sweep as internal government documents related to a popular case continue to trickle out. Late this week, Federal Claims Court Judge Margaret Sweeney granted a motion to compel the disclosure of documents that were filed over the summer by attorneys in Fairholme Funds v. the United States. Investors, having grown weary of the drawn-out discovery process, filed a motion in August in hopes of speeding things up by forcing the government to stop what they perceive as delay tactics. Attorneys asked the Federal Claims Court to use the “quick peek” procedure for some documents dating back to May 2012.
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