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Inside The GSEs

January 14, 2009

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Can Fannie and Freddie go Home Again?

Options for the next iterations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a post-conservatorship world are abounding in discussions among policymakers and GSE experts these days, perhaps chief among them the notion of sending the pair back to their roots a la Ginnie Mae, or converting them into a national housing utility. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently outlined a number of... Read More

Non-Agency MBS Threatens FHLBanks

The Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank this week reported that it expects to fall below its regulatory capital minimum due to losses on its portfolio of non-agency MBS. Moody’s Investors Service thinks more of the FHLBanks face the same threat, but at varying levels of intensity. The “ongoing turmoil in the capital and mortgage markets has caused a decline in the market... Read More

Fed Steps up Purchases of GSE MBS and Debt

The Federal Reserve has ratcheted up its effort to pump massive amounts of capital into the residential mortgage market, purchasing $10.2 billion of mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae last week as part of its $500 billion agency MBS purchase program that began in December. Freddie got the lion’s share, $6.9 billion, or 68 percent, while Fannie snared only... Read More

GSE Enforcement May be Key to Appraisal Deal

When it comes to the revised appraisal agreement involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some industry professionals are increasingly convinced that GSE enforcement may prove to be the determinant in just how successful the new approach will be. The revised final Home Valuation Code of Conduct stipulated by the agreement includes the establishment of an Independent Valuation Protection... Read More

Realtors Eye FHLBs, GSEs to Cut Rates, Foreclosures

Realtors have their eyes on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks as possible funding sources for an initiative they are pushing to reduce mortgage interest rates and curb worsening default and foreclosure rates. The National Association of Realtors has put forth a proposal based on an idea floated by the Treasury Department in which banks are encouraged to offer purchase... Read More

Homebuilders Want More ADC Support from GSEs

Some of the nation’s struggling homebuilders would like to see Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac get more involved in providing what they see as critically needed funding to support acquisition, development and construction lending, which has gone into the tank along with the rest of the housing finance market. “We have got to get to a discussion of Fannie and Freddie and some other organizations... Read More

Freddie, FHLBs, OF Split on Indemnification Reg

Some of the Federal Home Loan Banks would like to see their regulator make some additional changes to its interim final rule on golden parachutes and indemnification payments and extend a certain level of indemnification authority to all of the GSEs under its oversight, not just those in conservatorship. Different interested parties had separate issues with the proposal. The FHLBanks of... Read More

FHLBank DN Issuance a Record $2.7 Trillion in ‘08

In yet another manifestation of just how powerful the need for additional liquidity became for their members last year, the debt issuance of the Federal Home Loan Banks shattered 2007’s record level by more than $1 trillion. According to the latest analysis by Inside The GSEs of quarterly discount note issuance data from the FHLBank Office of Finance, last year’s... [Includes one chart] Read More

News In Brief

Finance Board Chair Rosenfeld Departs FHFA at Year-End: Ronald Rosenfeld, the last chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, resigned from... GSEs Extend Foreclosure Reprieve until Jan. 31: Late last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extended their previously announced suspension... FHFA Officially Added to Fed Anti-Fraud Task Force: The Federal Housing Finance Agency last week became one of six new members... Read More

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