Weekly Brief: BoA Sued; SCOTUS Shortlists; Fund Fights Argentina
On August 22, FHFA released a proposed rule on its housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) for 2025-2027 as required by the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992. FHFA is...more
Welcome to the latest edition of the Spectrum, covering hot-topic issues in the structured finance markets in the U.S. and UK. This edition features the new UK securitization regime, eHELOCs, and climate risk disclosures....more
On June 20, FHFA conditionally approved a limited pilot program for Freddie Mac to begin purchasing certain single-family closed-end second mortgages. This decision came after implementing a new approval process for products...more
June 24, 2024 - U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen gave remarks on housing policy and announcing new efforts by the Treasury Department using its existing authorities to increase the supply of housing....more
On June 14, the FHFA released its annual report to Congress, as required under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, detailing FHFA’s activities and the state of the housing finance industry in 2023. The report...more
Recently, the FHFA announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will update their Flex Modification policies to help struggling borrowers reduce their mortgage payments. Flex Modification would be for eligible borrowers...more
Federal Reserve Board. Extended comment period. On April 24, 2024, FRB and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said they would continue to accept comments on Capital One's proposed acquisition of Discover Financial...more
On May 1, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced new policies that will allow borrowers to challenge property appraisals they believe to be inaccurate or biased....more
May 1, 2024 - The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy held a hearing entitled, “Merger Policies of the Federal Banking Agencies.” The Committee heard...more
On April 18, Sandra L. Thompson, Director of the FHFA, addressed the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, emphasizing FHFA’s role in promoting access to affordable housing for homebuyers and renters...more
On April 22, the FHFA sent to the Federal Register a notice of a proposed new product from Freddie Mac to begin purchasing certain single-family closed-end second mortgages. According to the proposal, Freddie Mac would...more
April 15, 2024 - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published the April 2024 Empire State Manufacturing Survey. April 15, 2024- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released the SCE Labor Market Survey results for...more
On March 12, the FHFA published a final rule in the Federal Register titled “Exception to Restrictions on Private Transfer Fee Covenants (PFTCs) for Loans Meeting Certain Duty to Serve Shared Equity Loan Program...more
On February 29, FHFA announced updates related to the implementation of new credit score requirements for single-family loans acquired by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (GSEs). As previously covered by InfoBytes, FHFA released a...more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently issued a press release announcing a 2023 update to its Equity Action Plan. The Equity Action Plan is part of HUD’s efforts to implement President Biden’s...more
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently published another FHFA Insights blog post addressing the underutilization of appraisal time adjustments by appraisers that is a companion to an FHFA Insights blog post that...more
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently published a FHFA Insights blog post that cites the underutilization of appraisal time adjustments by appraisers....more
December 26, 2023- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation released the public sections of resolution plans of nine large domestic covered insured depository institutions due by December 1, 2023....more
The SEC released the final Securities Act Rule 192 relating to conflicts of interest in asset-backed securities transactions on November 27, 2023. In this OnPoint, we summarize the provisions of the final Rule 192 and...more
On November 15, FHFA released its annual performance report, titled “FHFA FY 2023 Performance and Accountability Report” to detail how it regulated the FHLBank system, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, during the past...more
On November 28, FHFA announced that it will raise the maximum conforming loan limits (CLL) for mortgages purchased in 2024 by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from $726,200 to $776,550 for most of the United States....more
November 28, 2023- The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion will hold a hearing entitled, "Fostering Financial Innovation: How Agencies Can Leverage...more
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced the conforming loan limits for residential mortgage loans acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2024. Fannie Mae addresses the limits in Lender Letter 2023-09....more
November 21, 2023- The U.S. Department of the Treasury, through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and IRS Criminal Investigation (CI), has settled with Binance...more
The proposed rule, if adopted, would apply to mortgage originators and issuers of mortgage-backed securitizations that rely on automated valuation models (“AVMs”) to determine the value of real estate collateral. The...more