The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Thursday announced a proposed rule on liquidity requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including reporting rules and minimum liquidity and funding. The four liquidity requirements in the proposed rule include: A short-term 30-day requirement that is based on a cumulative net cash outflow analysis, plus an additional $10 billion cushion requirement that must be met by highly liquid assets, like Treasury securities.A 365-day requirement extending the short-term cumulative cash outflow analysis to a full year. Over this intermediate term, Fannie and Freddie may count borrowings against certain fixed income instruments that the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation deems eligible collateral (subject to a haircut), which they cannot count under the 30-day requirement. There is…
President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday officially announced that Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge as the nominee for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Fudge, who had wanted to lead the Department of Agriculture, was one of five major appointments unveiled. They include Tom Vilsack (USDA), Denis McDonough (Veterans Affairs), Katherine Tai (US Trade Representative) and Susan Rice (director of White House Policy Council). “This dedicated and distinguished group of public servants will bring the highest level of experience, compassion, and integrity to bear, solving problems and expanding possibilities for the American people in the face of steep challenges,” Biden said. “The roles they will take on are where the rubber meets the road — where competent and crisis-tested governance can make…
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, according to media reports Tuesday. No official announcement of the appointment has been made, as the Biden team has been leaking cabinet selections to the media in advance of formal announcements a day or so later. Fudge, D-Ohio, had sought to lead the USDA – and even seemed to balk at the idea that she might end up at HUD. She told Politico in November that Black leaders too often are pigeon-holed for only certain cabinet positions, including HUD. As this country becomes more and more diverse, we’re going to have to stop looking at only certain agencies as those that people like me…
The American Bankers Association is jumping into the Senate runoff election in Georgia in a big way, dropping an ad thanking Sen. David Perdue for his role in “helping Georgia families and small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.” Perdue faces Democrat Jon Ossoff in one of two Georgia runoffs scheduled for Jan. 5 that will determine control of the U.S. Senate. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock face each other in the other runoff. Reuters reported that ABA is spending $1 million on the Perdue’s behalf. ABA called it “part of a voter education campaign.” “Senator Perdue’s strong support for the Paycheck Protection Program allowed small businesses in Georgia and around the country to survive the economic dislocation caused by COVID-19,”…
House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters issued a lengthy housing to-do list for President-elect Joe Biden. Waters, D-California, sent a 7,056-word letter to Biden urging him to, among other things: Issue an executive order to prevent evictions.Direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development to “implement a uniform, interim recertification rule that requires PHAs and owners to presume that a tenant’s inability to pay rent has been caused by a loss of income, and as a result would be required to conduct an income recertification.”Preserve the GSE Patch for the duration of the pandemic and re-propose a replacement for the GSE Patch when the housing market has stabilizedFire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger.Fire United States Interagency Council on Homelessness…
Mark Calabria wants to pull Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from conservatorship by the time President Trump leaves office next month. Not so fast, says Rep. Maxine Waters. The chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee sent Calabria a letter last week urging him to “fully engage with Congress, halt all efforts to raise the capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and halt all efforts to release them from conservatorship.” “I believe that it is entirely inappropriate for you and your agency to be focusing on releasing the Enterprises from conservatorship during the pandemic with the assistance of a lame duck Treasury Secretary,” Rep. Waters wrote. “At the very least, the Congress and the American public deserve transparency…
After 20 months on the job, Federal Housing Finance Agency Principal Deputy Director Adolfo Marzol will retire this month, FHFA announced Friday. Chris Bosland, FHFA’s Senior Advisor for Regulation, will succeed Marzol. “After finalizing the Enterprise’s capital rule, a key milestone on the path to responsibly ending the conservatorships, now is the right time for me to transition back into retirement,” Marzol said. Bosland joined FHFA in 2019 after serving as deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He previously was an attorney in private practice and has served as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as counsel and…
Another month of security. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Wednesday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will extend the moratoriums on single-family foreclosures and real estate owned evictions until at least January 31. Originally enacted earlier this year to protect homeowners during the Covid pandemic, the moratorium applies to Fannie and Freddie-backed, single-family mortgages only. The REO eviction moratorium applies to properties that have been acquired by Fannie and Freddie through foreclosure or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure transactions. “Extending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s foreclosure and eviction moratoriums through January 2021 keeps borrowers safe during the pandemic,” Director Mark Calabria said. “This extension gives peace of mind to the more than 28 million homeowners with an Enterprise-backed mortgage.” FHFA projects…
The housing authority of a small Alabama town was sued Tuesday by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly discriminating against Black housing applicants. The Justice Department says the Housing Authority of Ashland, Alabama, violated the Fair Housing Act by denying Black applicants the opportunity to live in overwhelmingly white housing complexes, while steering white applicants away from properties whose residents were predominantly Black. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that it has reserved three housing complexes – Ashland Heights, Clay Circle and East Side – for white residents while reserving West Side and Pine View complexes for Black residents. “Individuals and families should not have their rights affected by their race or national origin,” said U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona for the…
The 2021 multifamily loan purchase caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be $140 billion – or $70 billion for each Fannie and Freddie, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday. The $140 billion will support the multifamily market, and at least 50 percent of Fannie and Freddie’s multifamily loans are required to be used for affordable housing. “Multifamily housing is a critical component of the nation’s housing supply and especially of its affordable housing stock. As we continue to address the shortage of affordable housing, especially amid the COVID crisis, FHFA will keep a close eye on the multifamily caps to ensure that they are sufficient and serve to increase the supply of affordable housing but do not…
