WE’RE HEARING Senate Republicans plan to make it even tougher to get nominations through in President Obama’s second term, and that includes the mortgage arena.
These hardball tactics may explain why HUD secretary Shaun Donovan made such a concerted effort to appease demands by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to crack down on a popular FHA-insured
To secure Corker’s support for the confirmation of acting FHA director Carol Galante, the HUD secretary agreed to place a moratorium on the fixed-rate, full-draw standard reverse mortgage.
President Obama appointed Galante acting
But her status may change soon due to the administrative actions HUD officials agreed to take to stem losses in the FHA single-family and reverse mortgage programs.
In a letter to Corker, the acting FHA commissioner pledged to implement the changes by Jan. 31.
Corker for his part immediately signaled that he will support Galante’s confirmation by the Senate. And it seems no-love-lost has now turned into a lovefest, to judge by his reply.
“Given the reforms she is committed to, I believe that having an accountable commissioner with her resolve and expertise will be in the best interest of the taxpayer,” the
WE’RE HEARING a new proposal about what to do about the taxpayers’ unwanted stepchildren, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Why not combine the two and put them under the control of their fellow but publicity shy GSE, the
That would put the two of them into a cooperative structure and a little bit closer to the rank and file of the thousands of banks, thrifts, credit unions and insurance firms that make up the cooperative membership of the FHLBS, Alex Pollock maintained to us not too long ago—in other words, it would give Fannie and Freddie a little more skin in the game.
Pollock, former CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago and current fellow at the
Pollock, who started the
OH, THOSE GRAPEVINERS: Our multitudes of posters at mortgagegrapevine.com have something to say about absolutely anything. There are many recent postings about the Newtown shootings and the thorny issue of gun control, naturally. But Ravi Shankar’s passing gets a mention as well. (We won’t even go into our posters’ fascination with medical marijuana.) Occasionally they even try to do some business on the Vine. Here’s a link to an inquiry looking for a hard money lender in Nevada:
WHO’S NEW: If you want to get our attention and get into this column, expand your operation and hire new people. Net new hires, whether one, ten, a hundred or a thousand at a time, are the way the mortgage industry (and the national economy as well) will get out of its doldrums.
Blueberry Systems, a Colorado tech vendor, recently added about 30 years of industry expertise to its roster by hiring Kristi Watson as vice president of its project management office and Rick Schmitz as vice president of technology.
Blueberry CEO
FINAL THOUGHT: If you’re reading this on the weekend, congratulations on surviving another Doomsday! If you floated off into space on Friday, well, never mind.
— Mark Fogarty is editorial director of the SourceMedia Mortgage Group and has been commenting on the mortgage market since 1984. Brian Collins is the group’s senior editor and D.C. bureau chief. He has worked the mortgage beat since 1988.