Politics

The government conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wasn't meant to last forever, but releasing the companies is complicated and should involve a diffident Congress, housing policy experts said during a Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta housing panel.

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that preserves the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's existence, reinstates fired employees and contracts, requires data be preserved and mandates that employees go back to work.

The Federal Reserve governor said it is healthy to examine the regulatory architecture, but stressed the importance of the central bank having insight into the banking system.

The new state law can't ban the calls outright, but requires solicitors to disclose to mortgage consumers their identity and how they purchased the lead.

The Treasury Department told the OMB that all 11 programs in the CDFI Fund are statutorily mandated. The White House said "no final decisions have been made" about the programs.

The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency say they will move to rescind a 2023 reform to the Community Reinvestment Act, citing litigation concerns about the rule.

Perspective homebuyers with work visas, asylum seekers and DACA recipients seeking the government-backed mortgage will be impacted by this sweeping change.

The most tangible concern is in the commercial real-estate market. But the rating agency's crystal ball is cloudy when it comes to single-family home loans.

The Senate Banking Committee considered the nomination of Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose track record on deregulation in the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis was questioned by Democratic lawmakers. Lawmakers also considered the nomination of Jonathan Gould to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Luke Pettit for a key bank regulatory role at Treasury.

Uncertainty is ruling the markets that are used to set mortgage rates and as a result, they remained in the same tight range since the start of the month.