Freddie Mac

Jerome Powell says it's “now or never” to cut the government’s role in mortgage finance; Justice Department is monitoring eight banks for suspected money laundering.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Jerome Powell stopped short of endorsing any single housing finance reform plan, but called on lawmakers to resolve what he described as the biggest unfinished business of the crisis.

From the largest banks to the smallest independents, policymakers want to hear the mortgage industry speak with one voice in the critical efforts to reform the government-sponsored enterprises.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency made just incremental changes to two of the seven affordable housing benchmarks.

With lawmakers bracing for a major policy undertaking to reform the government-sponsored enterprises, they can take comfort that they don’t need to start from scratch.

The Senate is set to begin teeing up housing finance reform discussions at a Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, but many are skeptical that Congress will be able to succeed where it has failed in the past.

As long as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exist, they must have adequate capital so taxpayers will never again be compelled to help them meet their financial obligations.

The ICBA backs a plan to recapitalize Fannie and Freddie through retained earnings and public offerings, but other groups see it as a self-interested proposal to help GSE stockholders.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was pressed for his views on housing finance reform, what a “modernized” version of the Glass-Steagall Act would look like and a two-tiered regulatory system.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be able to rebuild a capital buffer to avoid any potential crisis in the mortgage market, according to a coalition of affordable housing advocates, homebuilders and small mortgage lender groups.