Capital requirements

Mark Calabria has notably criticized the government’s role in housing, but some groups have taken him at his word when he told senators that he supported affordable housing initiatives.

Mark Calabria, who could be confirmed as early as this month, is expected to focus on changes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s conservatorships to let the mortgage giants keep more of their profits.

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

The Milken Institute's plan to address the housing finance system proposes a number of measures that could be carried out by regulators, after years of stalled legislative attempts.

The revised blueprint by Moelis & Co. LLC incorporates a pending regulatory capital plan for the mortgage giants.

Another regulator has already gone out on its own with an advance notice of proposed rulemaking. But, Powell said, "It’s a process and we’re very much interested in pushing forward.”

The mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have to draw as much as $78 billion in the event of a serious economic crisis, according to stress test results released Tuesday by the housing regulator.

Conservatives will continue to fight for the kinds of reforms embodied in the Choice Act for decades to come, and history suggests they will likely win out.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may need to tap into U.S. Treasury funds when they adopt CECL, a new accounting rule that makes companies set aside money upfront for expected loan losses.

There's been a legislative bottleneck since the the crisis-era law went into effect, but Congress has moved forward on a handful of significant changes.