Regulatory reform

Craig Phillips, who has been developing the Trump administration's plan to help free Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from conservatorship, will leave Treasury next month.

Democrats and Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee called for steps to minimize the harm to community banks and credit unions bracing for the new accounting standard.

In his first public policy speech as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mark Calabria stressed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will have to raise significant capital via a public offering and take other steps in order to escape government control.

Two senators, a Republican and a Democrat, have revived legislation that would prohibit Congress from using certain fees collected by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offset unrelated government spending.

Brian Johnson, a Republican political appointee at the CFPB, has been named the agency's deputy director, the No. 2 job behind Director Kathy Kraninger.

The industry has long complained that gathering the data is confusing and costly but two plans issued by the CFPB could help lighten the burden for a significant portion of credit unions.

The long-awaited proposal includes safe harbors to protect collectors from getting sued, but would restrict phone collection attempts and allow borrowers to opt out of receiving other communications.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed steps to ease Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements, just days after announcing it was retiring a platform to let users analyze raw mortgage data.

Director Kathy Kraninger said the agency will emphasize a confidential supervisory process instead of just doling out public enforcement actions. But skeptics worry this will let companies escape punishment.

New FHFA Director Mark Calabria isn't just charting a future for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but also fixing problems resulting from the "qualified mortgage" exemption for the GSEs and taking a "deep dive" into problems in the mortgage servicing market.