The House Financial Services Committee passed the updated version of the Financial CHOICE Act, which includes a new provision that lets the president fire the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency at will and makes Congress responsible for setting the agency’s budget. The CHOICE Act 2.0 removed the original text, which recommended restructuring the agency to a five-member board. So while the current single-directorship structure would be maintained, the FHFA director can be asked to vacate the position by the president at any time. FHFA Director Mel Watt’s five-year term ends in early 2019. The provisions in this Republican bill would make widespread changes to the Dodd-Frank Act, but...

The Freedom of Information Act would apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under H.R. 1964 unanimously passing the House on April 27. The bill, introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-UT, would make the GSEs’ records available to the public on request. This changes the current law, which states the FOIA didn’t apply to Fannie and Freddie while under conservatorship because they aren’t federal agencies. But under H.R. 1964, also known as the Fannie and Freddie Open Records Act of 2017, the FOIA allows anyone to request and obtain existing, identifiable, and unpublished agency records on any topic. During floor debate, representatives added...

In the latest proposal for GSE reform, the Independent Community Bankers of America released a white paper last week that promotes letting the GSEs rebuild their capital buffers. The ICBA plan dovetails with the Community Home Lenders Association’s recent proposal that also recommends allowing the GSEs to build capital. The plan suggests ending the Treasury sweep, establishing capital-restoration plans, and delaying the launch of the uniform mortgage-backed security until the GSEs are recapitalized and released from conservatorship. Moreover, the ICBA wants Congress to create a catastrophic mortgage insurance fund for GSE securities and change Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to regulated and shareholder-owned financial utilities.

Fannie Mae introduced a few changes to its LoanSphere Invoicing system that went into effect at the end of April. Servicers use LoanSphere to submit qualified expenses associated with Fannie loans to be reimbursed. Among the updates are specific changes to the form’s line items that were designed to make submitting invoices easier. For instance, prior to the change, when creating a claim, servicers could select previously invoiced line items and add them to the claim if the line item is a Fannie-designated claim line item. However, the enhancement includes a new screen which enables servicer administrators to map invoice line items to a Fannie designated claim line item.

FHFA Testifies in Housing Finance Committee Hearing Next Week. On May 11, there will be a full U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing with Mel Watt as witness, on “The Status of the Housing Finance System After Nine Years of Conservatorship” at 10 a.m. Freddie Prices Fifth Small Balance Loan Securitization. Late this week Freddie Mac announced the pricing of the SB30 offering, a multifamily mortgage-backed securitization backed by small balance loans underwritten by Freddie and issued by a third-party trust. The company expects to guarantee approximately $276.2 million in Multifamily SB Certificates (SB30 Certificates), which are anticipated to settle on or about May 15.

Total issuance of agency single-family MBS rose a scant 0.6 percent from March to April, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. All of the increase came from Ginnie Mae issuance, which rose 16.1 percent from March, hitting $36.30 billion in April. Things were different for the two government-sponsored enterprises: Fannie Mae saw a 3.4 percent decline from the previous month and Freddie Mac volume was down 13.0 percent. Ginnie fared...[Includes two data tables]

Purchase loans accounted for 57.9 percent of April issuance for all three agencies, the highest penetration since September 2015…

Officials at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their regulator are encouraged by – but by no means satisfied with – the progress made by the government-sponsored enterprises and their customers at expanding the credit box. “We do see an expansion of credit, steady growth in the 97 percent [loan to value ratio] programs and a little better distribution of credit scores,” said Bob Ryan, special advisor and acting deputy director at the Federal Housing Finance Agency during remarks at the secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association in New York this week. “But they are still skewed to the higher end more than in the past.” Fannie and Freddie are trying...

Fannie Mae late last month loosened its underwriting guidelines for borrowers with student loan and other types of debt, and is currently working on pilot programs aimed at helping consumers amass a downpayment. In an interview with Inside MBS & ABS this week, Fannie Vice President of Product Development and Affordable Housing Jonathan Lawless said the government-sponsored enterprise has “more to come” on loosening guidelines. Although he could not provide much in the way of detail, he said...

In response to a question about Fannie's capital buffer, Mayopoulos said, “It’s our mission to provide liquidity in all markets at all times and we’re continuing to do that. I am glad to see that policy makers are starting to refocus on housing market reform including the lack of capital at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”