Fannie Mae Program to Expand Loan Qualifications; The Return of QE?

Wall Street Journal

The paper has a story on Fannie Mae's revamped HomeReady program, designed to give help to low-income families in qualifying for low downpayment mortgages. Details of the program were outlined in American Banker on Tuesday.

Wells Fargo expects to implement the program, said executive Brad Blackwell. Wells believes the program will help minority groups, although it may take some time to start working.

The Journal points out some of the program's new features, such as allowing income from extended-family members to count toward qualifying income, are intended to help Hispanics and other minority groups.

Edward Pinto of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute criticized the program, saying "I don't think this is a step forward for borrowers. These other incomes that they're adding are not of the same quality" as the income types that are usually counted.

On the other side, Gary Acosta, CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, praised the program. Acosta suggested it could open up homeownership for tens of thousands of Hispanic families.

Big banks' stock shouldn't be taking it on the chin out of concern they'll be undermined by exposure to China, John Carney writes in "Heard on the Street."

Carney lays out (once again) the myriad ways banks are tough enough to withstand the pressure: "less exposed to trading losses, financed with far more capital … far less dependent on wholesale, short-term financing .. armed with arsenals of safe, liquid assets they can sell in dire straits."

Then there are those stress tests, which have further given proof to banks' resilience.

"The banks have been tested—and given passing grades—against what are actually tougher environments than investors are now seeing," Carney wrote.

He further notes the largest U.S. banks have limited exposure to China, with Citigroup having the biggest exposure. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all have exposure of less than 1.1% of average assets.

The stock market turmoil doesn't reflect the sunny feelings of U.S. consumers, two economists and a homebuilder said.

Brian Johnston, chief operating officer of homebuilder Mattamy Group, said "It's sunshine and blue skies, notwithstanding what's happening on Wall Street."

Economist Joel Naroff agreed; he said, "It is hard to make the case that the stock-market mess has anything to do with the U.S. economy as the data are all pointing to solid growth."

A retailer that specialized in selling goods to military members has filed for bankruptcy after it was fined $50,000 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and became the target of a multistate probe into its business practices. USA Discounters in Norfolk, Va., provided its own credit program to help finance military members' purchases of its furniture, jewelry and electronics.

Financial Times

Talk about pulling the rug out from under you.

Forget all that stuff about the Fed raising rates next month. How about another round of quantitative easing instead?

That's what former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Ray Dalio of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates have suggested.

Raising rates would be a "serious error," Summers wrote. A new round of bond-buying would be preferable.

Dalio predicted that's how the Fed is leaning, although he cautioned in a note to clients that it may be difficult for the Fed to steer the ship in that direction at this late date.

"Our risk is that they could be so committed to their highly advertised tightening path that it will be difficult for them to change to a significantly easier path if that should be required," Dalio told his clients.

New York Times

First Data didn't list JPMorgan Chase as one of the banks hired to run its upcoming IPO, projected to be one of this year's largest. The Times interprets that omission as an intended snub, the result of bad blood between JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and First Data CEO Frank Bisignano.

Bisignano, a former top executive under Dimon, has hired away many executives from JPMorgan, much to Dimon's chagrin.

For those keeping track, First Data's IPO bookrunners include Citigroup, Bank of America, Barclays, PNC Financial Services Group, HSBC, SunTrust Banks, Wells Fargo and BBVA.

Elsewhere ...

Pacific Standard: The next wave of loan underwriting … the credit ratings of your Facebook friends. Yes, Facebook has filed a patent application on it technology of tracking a user's friends and their credit scores as a way to accept or reject loan applications. "You could be denied a loan simply because your friends have defaulted on theirs," Susie Cagle writes for Pacific Standard.

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