Affordable housing

Lawmakers approved a measure to increase the program's funding by nearly $3 billion over four years.

The Federal Home Loan banks could "design and implement" their own system for deciding how to allocate resources for affordable housing initiatives under the proposal by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Banking and affordable housing advocates are encouraged by a provision in the tax reform legislation that could increase investment in underserved communities by allowing investors to defer capital gains taxes when they reinvest in federally chartered Opportunity Funds.

Since stepping down as CEO of Webster Bank last month, James Smith has spent much of his time co-chairing a panel tasked with solving his home state’s fiscal and economic woes. Banks, and perhaps even fintechs, could be a part of its comeback story, he says.

The House Financial Services Committee chairman is calling out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator for authorizing payments to two housing trust funds while the mortgage giants have their own financial struggles.

Freddie Mac posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $3.3 billion and will request $312 million from the Treasury after recent tax reform legislation forced it to write down the value of deferred tax assets.

Despite a legislative push by some senators and other stakeholders to jump-start housing finance reform, efforts to form consensus over a bill once again are stuck in neutral.

Supporters of an unreleased bill to revamp the housing finance system say the plan strikes a middle ground that can gain support from both sides of the aisle.

Craig Phillips, a top aide to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, said his department "broadly" agrees with the FHFA plan, which would return Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the private market and provide them an explicit government guarantee.

The tax law is expected to eliminate 300,000 affordable housing units over 10 years in part because it will reduce the value of banks’ low-income tax credits, which finance half of all affordable housing units.