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A top U.S. regulator is considering taking steps to ease strains on mortgage companies facing a cash crunch as millions of Americans struggling with fallout from the coronavirus suspend their monthly payments, according to people familiar with the matter. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is weighing whether to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage-finance giants, to buy home loans that recently entered forbearance, meaning borrowers have stopped making payments, the people said. That would help nonbank mortgage companies that lend to home buyers and then quickly sell the loans to Fannie and Freddie. The strategy was upended...

Former federal housing agency director Mel Watt, who represented Charlotte in the U.S. Congress for more than two decades, misused his position to pursue a relationship with a woman working for him, according to a formal inquiry by the agency’s Inspector General. Watt was head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which currently oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, from 2014 through January when his five-year term expired. Simone Grimes, a special adviser at the agency, claimed that the 73-year-old Watt sexually harassed her and did not promote her when she declined his advances. Grimes also filed a pay discrimination...

A Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) employee who has accused Director Mel Watt of sexual harassment described her allegations Thursday in gripping testimony before a House committee. Simone Grimes, a special adviser at FHFA, told lawmakers that Watt made dozens of sexual advances toward her, withheld a promised pay raise over her refusal of his advances and was protected by senior agency officials charged with investigating her accusations. Grimes told the House Financial Services Committee that the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General responded to her claims with “hostility, intimidation, bullying, laden with gossip and public shaming” and sought to protect...

A Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) employee who has accused Director Mel Watt of sexual harassment described her allegations Thursday in gripping testimony before a House committee. Simone Grimes, a special adviser at FHFA, told lawmakers that Watt made dozens of sexual advances toward her, withheld a promised pay raise over her refusal of his advances and was protected by senior agency officials charged with investigating her accusations.Grimes told the House Financial Services Committee that the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General responded to her claims with “hostility, intimidation, bullying, laden with gossip and public shaming” and sought to protect Watt...

An employee of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) secretly recorded director Melvin Watt making sexual advances toward her, according to NPR News. Simone Grimes has accused Watt of sexual harassment, retaliation and pay discrimination, claiming he leveraged his ability to advance her career as he discussed his attraction to her. "I'm guilty of having an attraction to you, that is true," Watt said on the tape obtained by NPR. "So it makes me more conscious not to leave some impression." Grimes this week filed a lawsuit against FHFA , alleging it violated the Equal Pay Act as she worked...

A pair of top Obama-appointed bank regulators still serving in the Trump administration could spark another mortgage meltdown by lowering credit standards and encouraging risky lending practices. Democrat Mel Watt, who is serving a special five-year term as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is pushing the mortgage-lending giants he regulates — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — to offer home loans to deadbeat borrowers with shaky credit, setting up conditions for another housing-market crash, industry officials warn. Meanwhile, the other Obama holdover — liberal Democrat Richard Cordray, who continues to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through 2018...

When Washington took over the beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the collapse of the housing market and the financial crisis of 2008, it was with the implicit promise that they would be returned to shareholders after being nursed back to health. But now, with the unsealing of documents this week that were produced as part of a lawsuit filed against the government, new evidence is coming to light on how intimately the White House was involved in the Treasury’s decision in August 2012 to keep all the companies’ profits for the government. That move effectively maintained...

Extortion: After 16 banks caved in to White House demands to refund billions in losses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one outlier remains unrepentant. Nomura Holdings refuses to succumb to the political shakedown. The Japanese bank's U.S. unit won't give in to extortionist regulators protecting Fannie/Freddie who claim it hoodwinked the toxic twins into buying pools of subprime mortgages, like it claimed Bank of America, JPMorgan and other U.S. banks did in the run-up to the mortgage crisis. The government demands $1 billion in damages. Nomura says it won't give a dime toward the $18 billion ransom the feds...

In 2008, the nation entered into a financial crisis widely believed to have been caused by excesses in the residential mortgage industry. By 2010, the nation thought it had put in place a series of measures that not only would resolve the crisis but would insure that it never happened again. Yet, here we are in 2015 looking at another potential mortgage crisis. Only this time it is different. In 2008, funds flowed in waves into the mortgage industry. In 2015, it appears the funds are drying up. The solutions to the problem in 2010 and thereafter included: Suing and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Americans will soon be able to buy a home with a down payment as low as 3 percent, compared with the current minimum of 5 percent, the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say. The new lending guidelines announced by the companies Monday are designed to help more low-income and first-time buyers afford homes. Millions of Americans lost their savings or no longer had the income needed to set aside money for a home in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. That has held down the sales of houses and...

As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose intimate details of their families and financial lives -- including their Social Security numbers -- in a new national database being assembled by two federal agencies. The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to include personally identifiable information that reveals actual users, a reversal of previously stated policy. Sign Up for the Watchdog newsletter! FHFA will manage the database and share it with CFPB. A CFPB internal planning...

Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are conducting a massive, NSA-esque data-mining project collecting account information on an estimated 991 million American credit card accounts. It was also learned at a Congressional hearing Tuesday that CFPB officials are working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on a second data-mining effort, this one focused on the 53 million residential mortgages taken out by Americans since 1998.

Mel Watt was sworn into a top housing finance post Monday afternoon while simultaneously bringing to an end a career in Congress spanning more than two decades. The now-former representative from North Carolina was given the oath to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency by former Charlotte mayor and current Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Watt’s path to his new position was cleared last month after a drawn-out debate that included a controversial rule change allowing him to be confirmed with a 57-41 Senate vote. …

Today, FHFA directed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to raise guarantee fees in three components: • The base g-fee (or ongoing g-fee) for all mortgages will increase by 10 basis points; • The up-front g-fee grid will be updated to better align pricing with the credit risk characteristics of the borrower; and • The up-front 25 basis point adverse market fee that has been assessed on all mortgages purchased by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae since 2008 is being eliminated except in the four states whose foreclosure carrying costs are more than two standard deviations greater than the national average....

According to Nick Timiraos at the Wall Street Journal, Housing Agency (FHA) Will Reduce Mortgage-Loan Limits next month. The maximum for single-family homes in certain “high-cost” housing markets including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York will fall to $625,500, from the current level of $729,750. This is an attempt to bring the FHA back in line with their original mission of supporting first time homebuyers, not the Brad Pitts of the world. Why does the Federal government insure mortgages in expensive cities that are far more costly than middle America? Ask your Congressman. Example. Honolulu leads the nation in...

There is already fallout from Harry Reid (D-NV) and The Democrats use of the “nuclear option” to change confirmation hearings to a simple majority vote. Of course, this means that the Democrats can force horrible choices on America without the possibility of a filibuster. While most people have focused on the judicial appointments, one person in the housing finance arena stands to benefits: Mel Watt (D-NC). Watt would be a disastrous choice as Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director. He has NO regulatory experience, did not know what Tier 1 capital was (the lack of which sank Fannie Mae and...

The U.S. Treasury Department said it expected to sell its remaining shares of General Motors by the end of the year, a plan that may leave taxpayers with a shortfall of about $10 billion on the automaker’s 2009 bailout. It must be nice to be bailed out by Uncle Sam. Most companies go through the bankruptcy process without the Federal government interfering with the proceedings. But what about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered mortgage giants held in conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)? More to the point, why didn’t the failed giants go into bankruptcy instead?...

The mortgage market is undergoing a transformation. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing more credit risk-sharing deals (a sign of things to come) while Citi decides to sells its mortgage servicing portfolio. Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) By Jody Shenn — Freddie Mac “expects to complete another” sale of risk-sharing securities “shortly,” FHFA acting director Ed DeMarco said in speech yesterday afternoon. • NOTE: Freddie spokeswoman said last month it hopes to complete another deal this year; Fannie Mae execs said this month no more deals in 2013, working on one for early next year • FHFA plans for “scope and...

Now, this is a switch. During the housing bubble, regulators were criticized for being asleep at the wheel. Now at least one regulator is assuming the role of consumer activist for mortgage refinancings. A U.S. regulator is starting a campaign to encourage as many as 2 million borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance with a government program for properties that have lost value. Officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency convened focus groups this year to find out why borrowers paying interest rates as high as 7 percent hadn’t yet tried to lower their...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released their purchase only house price index this morning. It rose 0.7% in May. fhfa072313 The Pacific, West South Central, New England and Middle Atlantic continue to rise. East South Central? Not so much. fhfaregion072313 States in Each Census Division Pacific Census Division: Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California Mountain Census Division: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico West North Central: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri West South Central: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana East North Central: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio East South Central: Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama...