What’s not clear from yesterday's announcement is whether or not Fannie and Freddie are acting strategically or at the behest of Treasury or FHFA. Strategically this makes a lot of sense since the GSE’s have long supported a diverse market of loan sellers: credit unions, community banks...
Programs are underway on so many fronts to get foreclosures under control that it can be difficult to sort them all out. Early last week the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency issued their second quarter summary of foreclosure avoidance activity among large loan...
Fannie Mae has a herculean challenge in front of them. The Government Sponsored Enterprise has to manage the legacy issues of loose underwriting and documentation practices of it’s lender/servicer clients and the fallout from those dubious practices, the present day realities of an economic conditions...
Outgoing Treasury Secretary Paulson has suggested that Congress should replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with one or two private-sector entities. Those entities would purchase and securitize mortgages with a credit guarantee backed by the federal government, and would not have investment portfolios...
The best option for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be to convert them into public, utility-like organizations that would not hold any investment portfolio, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, Paulson said returning Fannie Mae and Freddie...
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said that economic activity has downshifted further and the policy response must be vigorous. He said cutting the Fed funds target rate below 1% is "certainly feasible", but broader action could be more efficient. "At this point, the scope for using...
The government announced Tuesday it will spend $600 billion to take on the obligations of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae in order to reduce borrowing costs for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Agency debt has always carried an implicit government guarantee but took on an explicit...
When the two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) were originally placed in conservatorship on September 7, federal regulators estimated that only a few dozen banks were holding preferred paper in the institution. However, the ABA survey has found that about 27 percent of banks are preferred stockholders...