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
July 30, 2024 - The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) approved a notice of proposed rulemaking, which if implemented, will effectively roll back significant portions of 2020’s...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
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
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
April 23, 2024- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved final rules to amend its swap execution facility (SEF) regulations related to uncleared swap confirmations to address issues which have been...more
On April 12, the FHFA announced plans to test a pilot program that would permit lenders to forego a lender’s title insurance policy or an attorney opinion letter for some refinance loans sold to Fannie Mae, aiming to lower...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
January 30, 2024- The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions held a hearing entitled, "Better Investment Barriers:...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
January 16, 2024- The Federal Reserve Board published a working paper entitled, "A Field Guide to Monetary Policy Implementation Issues in a New World with CBDC, Stablecoin, and Narrow Banks."...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
January 8, 2024- Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen gave remarks at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. January 8, 2024- The Federal Reserve Board released the G.19 consumer credit data for November 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
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
November 7, 2023- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing to use its larger participant authority to supervise nonbank companies that offer services like digital wallets and payment apps....more