Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said the U.S. central bank should seek to achieve the smallest balance sheet possible and overhaul its regime for implementing monetary policy. “Over the longer run, my preference is to maintain the smallest balance sheet possible with reserve balances at a level closer to scarce than ample,” […]
Bowman says Fed should use smallest possible balance sheet Read More »
Farmer Mac Farmer Mac CEO Bradford Nordholm will retire in 18 months, the company announced Thursday. Nordholm took over as CEO in 2018, almost a year after Farmer Mac fired former CEO Timothy Buzby for violating company policies not related to its financial and business performance. With Nordholm at the helm, Farmer Mac, a secondary
Farmer Mac CEO Bradford Nordholm to retire in 2027 Read More »
The value of government-sponsored enterprises’ Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stems from their mortgage-market role and experts at a Bipartisan Policy Center event at times took varying stances on what it would take to preserve and protect that position amid reform. The panel’s comments arrived ahead of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte’s ongoing
Panel eyes GSEs’ guarantee as public offering talks progress Read More »
Two more lenders have joined the parade of early conforming loan limit boosters, Crosscountry Mortgage and Rate. They join United Wholesale Mortgage and Pennymac in being willing to underwrite loans up to $819,000 for future sale to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Of the major lenders who have done so in the past, only Rocket
Rate, Crosscountry latest to boost conforming limits early Read More »
The top Senate Democrat with oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for more details about the Trump administration’s efforts to take the mortgage giants public. The Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency have been holding meetings with housing advocates, think tanks and mortgage industry representatives this month
Elizabeth Warren presses Bessent on Fannie, Freddie IPO efforts Read More »
Silvio Tavares waited years for news that finally arrived in July: government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would finally allow lenders to use something other than a FICO score to determine whether a customer is credit-worthy enough to buy a home. The wonky policy change, delivered via a social media post after years of
Fannie, Freddie win for VantageScore causes pain for FICO shares Read More »
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a proposed rule to repeal its Fair Lending, Fair Housing and Equitable Housing Finance Plan requirements — regulations it finalized barely a year ago — and is inviting the public to comment on this proposal until Sept. 26. It is one of the agency’s swiftest reversals of a
FHFA’s fair lending reversal risks housing market stability Read More »
Fannie Mae made downward revisions to mortgage rate forecasts in its latest monthly economic update with projections for higher volumes than previously anticipated next year. The government-sponsored enterprise revised the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage projection for fourth-quarter 2025 to 6.4% from 6.5%, and the one for the same loan type a year further out to
Where Fannie Mae anticipates rates will head next Read More »
A rapid plunge in U.S. interest-rate volatility is heaping pain on a popular Wall Street approach for hedging against financial market turmoil. In recent years, major banks have been building and selling protective quantitative investment strategies (QIS) tied to long-term expectations for swings in interest rates. The products — systematic trades packaged up as swaps for the
Rates ‘Volmageddon’ hammers Wall Street tail hedge Read More »
The regulator for two government-related mortgage investors is leaving the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, according to the former’s director. Director Bill Pulte informally circulated the departure on the social media platform X in line with his practice of using that forum to announce new policy. Pulte heads the
Why FHFA is exiting network for ‘greening’ financial system Read More »