Tag Archives: GSE Reform

The financial results for Q1 2016 released by both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae this week, particularly for Freddie Mac, have resulted in even more questions as to whether or not the current GSE model is sustainable.

If the GSE reform should happen, the industry should aim to meet the needs of future generations of homeowners, not the want of political interests. In order to do this, however, Ginnie Mae will need to come forward as its own government corporation.

Andrew Davidson, President of Andrew Davidson & Co., Inc., says that the GSEs should be striped down to the functions that promote standardization, liquidity, and access to credit, and adopt the best governance structures for those functions using these four methods.

In a recent essay, former Vice Chairman and CFO of Fannie Mae, Tim Howard, explains that the GSE reform should be based on mending the system already in place to to avoid yet another crisis by following these five methods.

Though many experts have said housing finance reform is unlikely this year, the time is now to explore the fundamentals of how that reform could happen. Uniform and transparent measures of credit risks will play a key role—whether it’s in 2016, 2017, or beyond. Editor's note: This select print feature appears in the March 2016 edition of MReport magazine, available now.

Eight of the nine voting members on the Financial Stability Oversight Committee will testify Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee, and over at The Hill, the argument is made that GSE reform has to run through FSOC. The Hill looks at the gauntlet ahead.

Now that the news has had a bit of time to marinate, some within the housing industry reacted by taking up alliances with lobbyist, while others went the opposite direction and questioned these higher-ups' motives.

“There is overwhelming consensus that congressional action is needed, and it is hard to imagine that anyone would ever want to harm taxpayers and return to the failed model of private gains and public losses.” -Sen. Bob Corker

Michael Stegman, President Obama’s top adviser on housing policy, recently addressed some of the mortgage industry's hot-button topics such as housing market recovery, homeownership support for struggling buyers, GSE reform, and risk sharing.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into conservatorship seven years ago, and questions still linger as to how and when to reform the GSEs.