GSE reform

The groups applauded a proposal to establish minimum GSE capital requirements, but called for more immediate steps to release the companies from conservatorship.

Risk management and technology systems at the Federal Housing Administration lag decades behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and desperately need to be revamped, according to a top official at HUD.

No plan will be implemented as long as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain in conservatorship, but a capital framework for the companies could still have a substantive impact.

The agency proposed new minimum capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would only go into effect if the government ends its conservatorships.

In the continued absence of legislation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator announced work on a new capital framework.

Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia are acknowledging the legislative efforts to end government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are dead, at least for now.

For nearly a decade, the FHFA has restricted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from trying to influence the raging debate over whether they should live or die.

President Trump has nominated Michael Bright, the current acting president and chief operating officer of Ginnie Mae, to head the agency full time.

If Freddie Mac's credit-risk transfer activities continue to grow, mortgage lenders could eventually see a reduction in the guarantee fees they pay to the government-sponsored enterprise, according to CEO Donald Layton.

The Treasury secretary said reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will come into focus more in 2019, when Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt’s term will end.