Alex J. Pollock

FHFA Director Mark Calabria should ensure the government-sponsored enterprises hold at least 4% of total assets as part of housing finance reform.

As policymakers consider administrative reforms to Fannie and Freddie, they must address the problem of capital arbitrage to avoid overleveraging the mortgage system.

A new analysis of mortgage data demonstrates how default rates, not just approval and decline rates, can be used to evaluate findings of unfair treatment in lending.

Debates on the issue often focus on how lending decisions affect certain demographic groups, but those analyses tend to ignore an important factor: default rates.

The reserve bank's proposal to address banks and nonbanks that remain "too big to fail" does not include two of the largest such institutions: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Lenders should be encouraged to hold more credit risk in the mortgage market, rather than having it foisted on Fannie and Freddie.

The GSEs are on their way to paying back the money they owed the government under the original bailout deal made at the height of the financial crisis, making 2018 an opportune time for an overhaul of the housing finance market.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency must set fees equal to the cost of capital that private banks hold against similar risk, not just the amount of capital that Fannie and Freddie think are right for themselves.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council is masquerading as an analytical, objective body that more accurately reflects the Dodd-Frank Act's aim to expand the power of bureaucrats.

The biggest change in banking in the last 60 years is the shift in balance sheets from business lending to real estate finance and therefore more risk tied to volatile real estate prices.