We’re Starting to See SIFIs
As came out into the open last week, FSOC will finally turn to rewriting the Trump era rewrite of the Obama Administration’s FSOC protocols regarding systemic financial institutions and activities. Could the SIFI reaper be coming for Fannie and Freddie? We doubt it, but then again…
As came out into the open last week, FSOC will finally turn to rewriting the Trump era rewrite of the Obama Administration’s FSOC protocols regarding systemic financial institutions and activities. Could the SIFI reaper be coming for Fannie and Freddie? We doubt it, but then again…
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The Great Unbundling
As we noted yesterday, FHFA has decided not only to unbundle second and high-dollar loans from its flat-fee paradigm, but now to do the same for about one in five conventional conforming purchase loans outside these categories. Together with new cash-out refi fees, the agency is recrafting Fannie and Freddie into an express risk- and mission-pricing construct that alters the essence of the GSEs and thus of the market as a whole.
Deadline Set for D-SIB Resolution Comment
The Federal Register today included the Fed/FDIC D-SIB resolution ANPR, as announced last week (see Client Report DEPOSITINSURANCE115). As analyzed in our in-depth report (see FSM Report RESOLVE48), the agencies seek comment on whether requiring D-SIBs to have TLAC standards akin to those mandated for G-SIBs would enhance resolvability, as well as seeking input on extending clearing holding company requirements to D-SIBs, disclosure standards in the event of a resolution, and explicit severability plans.
FHFA Advances Equitable Finance With New Fees, Credit Score Options
Building on its 2022 scorecards and January’s up-front fee price hikes, FHFA today announced it will eliminate upfront fees – aka, delivery fees or loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) – for certain borrowers and affordable mortgage products. The Agency will also implement targeted increases to the upfront fees for most cash-out refinance loans. Upfront fees will be eliminated for: first time homebuyers at or below 100% of area median income (AMI) and below 120% AMI in high-cost areas; HomeReady and Home Possible loans, which are Fannie and Freddie’s flagship affordable housing products; HFA Advantage and HFA Preferred loans; and single-family loans supporting the Duty to Serve program.
How Low Can You Go?
FHA’s request for input on small-dollar loans could mean much for this equality-essential product or little beyond a lot more public debate. It was issued concurrently with a high-profile Administration event on racial equity, coming also in concert with a new HUD report on small-balance mortgages (i.e., those with balances of less than $70,000) mandated under an FY22 appropriations measure. Depending on what it does, HUD could do more for small-dollar loans than FHFA explicitly pressed in its equitable-finance plan, although Fannie and Freddie might come round to crafting some programs in the special-purpose credit programs they anticipate.
BofA’s new no-down payment mortgage is another innovative product in which banks use their balance sheets to address their CRA obligations by offering down payment assistance or, as here, flat out nothing down. The extent to which nonbanks can match these programs depends on the extent to which Fannie and Freddie are able and then willing to cross-subsidize ….
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Life Insurers Depend on FHLB Advances for Stress Liquidity, Long-Term Funding
Reflecting longstanding fears about life-insurance run-risk (see Client Report SYSTEMIC92), a new research note from the Federal Reserve finds that life insurers were quick to establish liquidity buffers when Covid hit in 2020, largely doing so via FHLB advances and interest-rate derivative margins.
JEC Financial Inclusion Report Calls for Postal Banking, Crypto Regulation
The Joint Economic Committee yesterday afternoon released a report on the barriers that people of color and low-income communities face accessing financial services, concluding that traditional banks discriminate, new nonbank offerings may prove predatory, and policy solutions are essential.
OFR: Lower-Risk Hedge Funds Lead to Higher Treasury-Market Stress
A new OFR working paper finds that changes in aggregate hedge fund exposures are related to Treasury yield changes in economically and statistically significant ways, with managed futures and multi-strategy funds having the highest impact on Treasury prices.
FHFA Advances Equity Campaign with New Committee
Building on its equitable housing campaign, FHFA today announced an advisory committee on affordable, equitable, and sustainable housing. It will provide analysis focused on Fannie, Freddie, and the FHLBs in areas such as the barriers to and need for regulatory or policy changes to expand affordable, equitable, and sustainable housing.
FHFA, Fannie, and Freddie yesterday released the results of FHFA’s latest stress test, focusing on the severely-adverse scenario in order – or so FHFA says – to push the GSEs to the limit. This the test does insofar as the GSEs’ combined CET1 capital shortfall is as much as $159 billion. However, aspects of FHFA’s test – e.g., falling inflation over 2022 and 2023 and rising house prices – are likely to be more than a bit off….
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Testing for What, Why?
FHFA, Fannie, and Freddie yesterday released the results of FHFA’s latest stress test, focusing on the severely-adverse scenario in order – or so FHFA says – to push the GSEs to the limit. This the test does insofar as the GSEs’ combined CET1 capital shortfall is as much as $159 billion. However, aspects of FHFA’s test – e.g., falling inflation over 2022 and 2023 and rising house prices – are likely to be more than a bit off. The conservatorship of course insulates the GSEs from any of the consequences that would befall a big bank with even a fraction of these capital shortfalls, but it does cast doubt on when these conservatorships could end without a large line of Treasury credit still in place to back them up.
Two Things
We yesterday provided a complete assessment of Sandra Thompson’s sojourn on HFSC’s griddle, noting the lack of any insights into essential issues such as conservatorship’s end or the full scope of CRT’s new beginning. More interesting to us are new battlelines on new products, including signs of renewed skirmishing over GSE self-insurance in lieu of MI. Unlike FHFA under Calabria, Fannie and Freddie appear to have a friend in one critical high places for new ventures, especially those said to be good for equitable finance.