Posted on 10/14/2017 8:56:32 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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 — has launched an unprecedented crackdown on credit reporting bureaus for allegedly widespread errors and bias, leading the industry to strip some negative information from credit reports used by home lenders, which analysts fear could blind them to default risks.
“We are dumbing down the requirements all over again,” warned former chief Fannie credit officer Ed Pinto. “It’s getting very dangerous.”
Credit scores of approved borrowers, for example, already have been trending down, even as their debt levels have grown, according to Ellie Mae, a leading mortgage data firm. And the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently warned: “This easing trend over the past three years is similar to the degree of easing in the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis.”
Watt, a former Congressional Black Caucus leader, has been demanding Fannie and Freddie ease credit standards — just as the feds did starting under President Bill Clinton, in pursuit of the same goal: “to help African-Americans achieve the goal of homeownership,” as Watt declared in a recent speech in New Orleans.
In his remarks, the former North Carolina lawmaker, who once demanded Freddie back home loans for welfare recipients in his district, urged underwriters to increase “flexibility”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Banks have much higher capital levels and much less appetite for stupid loans than last time.
Mr. Community Organizer did wonders with Federal money for low-cost housing in Chicago.
Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy"About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition."
July 17, '08
Fannie, Freddie spent millions on lobbyingRaines, the company's former chief financial officer, Timothy Howard, and former controller Leanne Spencer were accused in a civil lawsuit of manipulating earnings over a six-year period at Fannie. Raines was appointed by Clinton, after serving as White House budget director under Clinton.
Raines' predecessor, former Fannie Mae chief James Johnson, is a prominent Democrat who was an adviser to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and was selected by Obama to help vet his vice presidential prospects. But controversy over favorable loan deals he obtained with Countrywide Financial Corp., a bank seriously damaged by the mortgage meltdown decline, prompted him to abruptly resign that post in June.
From April '08
Former Fannie chief agrees to $24.7 million settlementWASHINGTON — Former Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines and two other top executives have agreed to a $31.4 million settlement with the government announced Friday over their roles in a 2004 accounting scandal.
Raines, former Fannie chief financial officer Timothy Howard and former controller Leanne Spencer were accused in a civil lawsuit in December 2006 with manipulating earnings over a six-year period at the company, the largest U.S. financer and guarantor of home mortgages.
Raines, a prominent Washington figure who was President Clinton's budget director, is relinquishing company stock options, proceeds from stock sales and other benefits. His part of the settlement is worth $24.7 million,
Tough Decision Coming August 28th '08
"Two members of Mr. Obama's political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae."
These guys need to be arrested, if they can’t be fired.
No one gets to happily injure the US economy and pay no price for doing so.
Where there is a will, there is a way to swarm these guys.
I saw an ad last week on TV urging low income people to sign up for a program that offers no interest down payment loans. It was for $7,500 toward a down payment. This is what caused the last housing crash. This should never be allowed. Trump had better squelch this now.
My 31 year old son just bought his first home last spring. He saved for his down payment, didn’t borrow anything from us. He’s also paid off his student loan within a couple of years from graduating. Now the government wants to give money to people for down payments and forgive student loans?
The first thing President-Elect Trump should have done after his election was send a form letter to all Obama appointees instructing them to have an undated letter of resignation on his desk by 21 January, 2017.
Agree. Federal senior executives are policy makers. They should be employees-at-will.
If they don’t support the goals of the chief executive (here, avoiding another Barney Frank meltdown) ****can them.
http://seniorexecs.org/images/documents/US_Federal_Career_SES-Its_Purpose_Major_Features_and_Role_in_Policy_Formulation_and_Implementation.pdf
When it “hits the fan” again the feds will go after the lower level lenders / brokers while giving the policy makers - remember BLarney Franks and Cris Dodds - a pass AND a golden parachute when they leave - remember Claude Reins from Freddie Mac? - I hope SOMEONE is keeping track and taking names.
Banks don't hold on to loans, they sell them. Downstream people bundle them into mortgage based securities that can be bought by other investors. Lets hope everyone is doing their homework better this time.
Greed ALWAYS trumps knowledge and intelligence. Walk into any Indian casino and watch the animals. None of the herd thinks they are going to lose...
No one gets to happily injure the US economy and pay no price for doing so.
barney frank and dodd, cass sunstien still walking free
If they can’t statistically identify and filter out bad loans (whether for minorities or not), the mortgage industry could slip back into bad times very quickly.
These guys are talking about getting loans to massive numbers of bad risks, which could ruin overall mortgage portfolios quite quickly.
The whole point to this article is that the regulators are making it impossible for the lenders to (legally) do their homework.
Crooks in suits - Bookmark
They are setting things up, in preparation of the next economic downturn, which will precipitate a housing downturn they can only hope will become a downward chain reaction of its own, putting more and more mortgage holders under water.
I'm not sure where you got that idea.
What do you think banks do with their deposits?
Bank of America's loan book was $917 billion at the end of Q2. Wells Fargo's was $957 billion. Citigroup $653 billion.
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