In Brief: Group Seeking to Curb GSEs Fires Shots

FM Watch, a coalition formed to contain Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, fired its first salvos Thursday.

At a press conference, FM Watch revealed some of its trade group members, including the Consumer Bankers Association, the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, the National Home Equity Mortgage Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition, and the Home Equity Lender Leadership Organization.

The group said it sent a letter to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo, urging him to increase the government-sponsored enterprises' affordable housing requirements, and endorsing stricter capital requirements for them.

Fannie and Freddie issued statements dismissing the group as a veiled effort by mortgage insurance companies to protect their profits from new government-sponsored enterprise programs that they said provide insurance to consumers at lower cost.

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